Reedy Creek & Hammock Lake
In 2023, Lyme affiliates purchased entities owning the Reedy Creek Mitigation Bank and the Hammock Lake Mitigation Bank in Florida. The Reedy Creek bank, consisting of 3,520 acres in Polk and Osceola Counties, was permitted by the Corps and the Southwest Florida Water Management District in 1998, making it one of the oldest mitigation banks in Florida. The Hammock Lake bank, consisting of 818 acres in Polk County, was permitted by the Corps in 2010 and the Southwest Florida Water Management District in 2008.
The underlying property of the Reedy Creek bank contains ecologically significant portions of the Reedy Creek and Huckleberry Islands Swamp complex. The Reedy Creek water body, which is located immediately northeast of the property, is a primary tributary of the Kissimmee River, which feeds into Lake Okeechobee. The property provides critical ecological functions within the Lake Kissimmee watershed, including flood storage and dissipation, year-round baseflows to downstream rivers and lakes, and recharge to the intermediate and Floridan aquifers.
Habitat within the property consists of approximately 530 acres of upland and fire-dependent pine flatwoods and 3,030 acres of mixed hardwood and cypress forested wetlands. Restoration plans include wetland enhancement and restoration, wetland preservation, and upland flatwoods restoration.
The Hammock Lake property is part of a regionally significant headwater wetland system with direct hydrologic connections to Lake Louisa, the Clermont Chain of Lakes, and the Green Swamp portion of the Ocklawaha River, which are all designated as Outstanding Florida Waters. The property serves as an important rookery and provides habitat for Florida sandhill cranes, wood stork, osprey, and an array of egret, osprey, and limpkin populations. Upland habitat includes hardwood-conifer mixed forest, mesic oak hammock, shrub and bushland, and fire-dependent herbaceous prairie. Wetland habitat consists of approximately 30 acres of enhanced hydric pine and mixed hardwood forests, 63 acres of enhanced high marsh, 350 acres of enhanced low marsh, and 23 acres of cypress forests that comprises fringe habitat adjacent to Bonnet and Hammock Lakes. Activity on this bank is winding down.