Booker Creek Preserve 

November 11, 2015

2:30 pm 85 degrees

Sunny, breezy 68% humidity

Booker Creek Preserve

3940 Keystone Road 

Tarpon Springs, Florida 34688

     The Booker Creek Preserve is an accumulation of several different tracts of land totaling over 8500 acres and is managed by Pinellas County Department of Parks. This is a preserve and not a park. The accumulation of the land started in 1970's and continued through 2009. Originally, Pinellas County purchased the land surrounding the Eldridge-Wilde well fields to protect them from development and maintaining ground water quality. The parcel south of Keystone Road was added in 2009 which is slightly over 700 acres. 

     Presently the Booker Creek Preserve serves several purposes. The land provides a corridor for wildlife, a water shed and a recreation and education area. This land has a comprehensive management plan developed and maintained by biologists. This is truly the sparkling jewel in the Pinellas County park system.

     This land is a mixture of oak hammocks, high pine grasslands, flat lands, prairies and cypress swamps or marsh lands. As you stroll down the boardwalk or on the trails it is clear to see the changes of land as elevation changes. The oak hammocks are slightly higher in elevation with sandy xeric soil and the cypress or marsh areas with hydric soils. 

     It is clear that fire has not rejuvenated the land for years even though this ecosystem depends on fire. Controlled burns are quite tricky due to the housing developments so close. The diversity of wildlife is clearly evident. Deer, gopher tortoise, armadillo and other keystone species along with indicator species are plentiful.  

boardwalk

pine grass land

oak hammock