The Wetlandsbank Group is pleased announce the release of credits for Blackwater Creek Mitigation Bank.  The 347 acre bank has been approved by the St. Johns River Water Management District and the United States Army Corps of Engineers to provide both state and federal:

Freshwater forested wetland credits

Freshwater herbaceous wetland credits

The Wekiva Basin north of Orlando, Florida is the primary service area of the Blackwater Creek Mitigation Bank. The St. Johns River Water Management District has determined the Wekiva Basin to be of critical concern and designated it as a Nested Basin.

The Secondary Service Area for the Blackwater Creek Mitigation Bank includes four planning units of the Middle St. Johns River Basin. The secondary service are is comprised of the Alexander Springs Planning Unit, the Lake George Planning Unit, the Lake Kerr Planning Unit, and the Lake Woodruff Planning Unit.

The Blackwater Creek Mitigation Bank site is located in Lake County, within the Wekiva River Nested Basin, and adjacent to environmentally sensitive tracts of land that are contiguous with the Ocala National Forest.  Once a sand mine operation, the degraded mitigation site had been excavated below the water table. As a consequence, the hydrology of the site was altered and overburden deposited on adjacent wetlands and uplands disrupting the natural ecology. The Wetlandsbank Group will utilize its experience and expertise to repair these damaged lands to a functional ecological state, helping to restore and enhance Blackwater Swamp and the SJRWMD''s Lake Norris Conservation Area.