Weather: approximately 86 degrees, breezy and sunny
Ecosystem - High pine grassland; swamp
Brooker Creek Preserve turns out to be all the way in Tarpon Springs. The old Brooker Creek Park was what is now John Chestnut Park, so you can imagine my surprise to see this beautiful area out in the middle of what used to be old mudding grounds and power lines we used to hang out in as teenagers (officially "hunting and logging")!
Brooker Creek runs into Lake Tarpon. This park utilizes prescribed burns every 1-5 years so as not to have the ecosystem turn into a hammock. The park consists of forested wetlands and swamps.
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We saw epiphites in the form of air plants and shelf fungi, wild coffee, beauty berry, a woodpecker. The water in the swamp had a dark black hue to it from the tannens expelled from the dropping leaves, which looked like "Texas Tea" at first. Native evergreens were a plenty. This was at first a dry hike, then it very much turned into a muddy, wet hike. Very adventurous afternoon.
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