Hickey Creek Mitigation Park is co-managed by the Lee County Department of Parks and Recreation and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. It consists of a variety of habitats including palmetto-oak scrub, pine flatwoods, and seasonal wetlands. Views of scenic Hickey Creek can be enjoyed from the trail and overlook areas. The ecosystem presently supports the threatened Florida Scrub-Jay and gopher tortoises.
Environmental mitigation is an attempt to offset the detrimental impacts of development on a certain species or a type of native plant community. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) implemented the Mitigation Park Program as an alternative to developers compensating for the impacts of their developments on their own lands. Mitigation Parks are an effective way to protect native plant communities and the plants and animals that rely on them. Hickey Creek Mitigation Park was originally established by the FWC and Lee County to mitigate for gopher tortoise (Gopherus polyphemus) habitat destroyed by development in southwest Florida.
