Brooker Creek Preserve Summer Camps and Youth Programs
Brooker Creek Preserve, 3940 Keystone Rd, Tarpon Springs, FL 34688
About
Brooker Creek Preserve Summer Camps and Youth Programs offers hands-on sessions such as Herpetology Summer Camp, Wetland Adventure Camp, and the Youth Environmental Leadership Workshop, along with ongoing youth activities like Book Time at Brooker and Teen Homeschool Hike. Additional programs include nature-focused hikes and walks, lectures, workshops, and arts events such as Bird Hike, Botany Walk, Sleep in Saturday Hike, Watershed Walk, From the Ground Up Lecture Series: The Magic of Mushrooms, Stories & Songs with the East Lake Library, and Plein Air 2026.
• Ages: 3–17 years old
• Schedule: Week-long day camps and workshops typically run Monday–Friday, with most camp days from 9 a.m.–4 p.m., plus recurring and one-day programs on specific dates and times throughout the year
• Price: Herpetology Summer Camp $195 per camper; Youth Environmental Leadership Workshop $25 per student; ECO Teacher Training Workshop free; Wetland Adventure Camp $265 per camper plus $45 per camper for optional Before/After Care; Plein Air 2026 $20 non-refundable participation fee; free admission to Brooker Creek Preserve with donations welcome
Herpetology Summer Camp is a popular, hands-on, science-based nature day camp that has returned for its 16th year and is sponsored by Heinrich Ecological Services. At this camp, children explore amphibians and reptiles through up-close encounters with animals such as gopher tortoises, frogs, lizards, and snakes, led side-by-side with herpetologist George L. Heinrich. Wetland Adventure Camp is led by Sensing Nature's professional biologist and certified UF Florida Master Naturalists and includes exploring swamps, marshes, and mucks, dip netting a dragonfly nymph, swamp tromping where ferns grow, learning about soils and water, and helping make a difference for wetland critters.
The Youth Environmental Leadership Program is designed for high school students to engage in hands-on skill-building activities, gain an understanding of environmental issues, develop skills to take action and inspire others through leadership, and participate in activities including cleanups and canoeing, with the option to receive community service or Bright Futures Scholarship hours. The ECO Teacher Training Workshop is a nationally award-winning, week-long environmental education workshop that aims to provide participants with tools and information to interpret the natural world and impart the need for resource conservation, and it is a collaboration between UF/IFAS Extension Pinellas County's Natural Resources Agent and a St. Petersburg College, College of Education Professor.
Book Time at Brooker connects children to the natural world through a nature-related story and a craft and is led by Brooker Creek Volunteers. Teen Homeschool Hike is led by volunteer hike guide and naturalist Sara Ratza, Botany Walk is led by Education and Outreach Specialist James Stevenson, and Sleep in Saturday Hike is led by a volunteer hike guide. Living with Coyotes is taught by biologist Rhonda Latour from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC), and Stories & Songs with the East Lake Library is conducted with the East Lake Community Library.
Brooker Creek Preserve is approximately 8,700 acres, is the largest natural area in Pinellas County, and consists primarily of forested wetlands and pine flatwoods bordered by dense urban development. A complex of hiking and equestrian trails and scenic boardwalks provides opportunities to explore multiple ecosystems, and Plein Air 2026 requires all artwork to be created within the Preserve grounds on specified dates, displayed in the Auditorium Gallery, and includes juried prizes for Best in Show and other awards, with a requested 20% donation from artwork sales to Friends of Brooker Creek Preserve, Inc.
Last updated February 12, 2026.
• Ages: 3–17 years old
• Schedule: Week-long day camps and workshops typically run Monday–Friday, with most camp days from 9 a.m.–4 p.m., plus recurring and one-day programs on specific dates and times throughout the year
• Price: Herpetology Summer Camp $195 per camper; Youth Environmental Leadership Workshop $25 per student; ECO Teacher Training Workshop free; Wetland Adventure Camp $265 per camper plus $45 per camper for optional Before/After Care; Plein Air 2026 $20 non-refundable participation fee; free admission to Brooker Creek Preserve with donations welcome
Herpetology Summer Camp is a popular, hands-on, science-based nature day camp that has returned for its 16th year and is sponsored by Heinrich Ecological Services. At this camp, children explore amphibians and reptiles through up-close encounters with animals such as gopher tortoises, frogs, lizards, and snakes, led side-by-side with herpetologist George L. Heinrich. Wetland Adventure Camp is led by Sensing Nature's professional biologist and certified UF Florida Master Naturalists and includes exploring swamps, marshes, and mucks, dip netting a dragonfly nymph, swamp tromping where ferns grow, learning about soils and water, and helping make a difference for wetland critters.
The Youth Environmental Leadership Program is designed for high school students to engage in hands-on skill-building activities, gain an understanding of environmental issues, develop skills to take action and inspire others through leadership, and participate in activities including cleanups and canoeing, with the option to receive community service or Bright Futures Scholarship hours. The ECO Teacher Training Workshop is a nationally award-winning, week-long environmental education workshop that aims to provide participants with tools and information to interpret the natural world and impart the need for resource conservation, and it is a collaboration between UF/IFAS Extension Pinellas County's Natural Resources Agent and a St. Petersburg College, College of Education Professor.
Book Time at Brooker connects children to the natural world through a nature-related story and a craft and is led by Brooker Creek Volunteers. Teen Homeschool Hike is led by volunteer hike guide and naturalist Sara Ratza, Botany Walk is led by Education and Outreach Specialist James Stevenson, and Sleep in Saturday Hike is led by a volunteer hike guide. Living with Coyotes is taught by biologist Rhonda Latour from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC), and Stories & Songs with the East Lake Library is conducted with the East Lake Community Library.
Brooker Creek Preserve is approximately 8,700 acres, is the largest natural area in Pinellas County, and consists primarily of forested wetlands and pine flatwoods bordered by dense urban development. A complex of hiking and equestrian trails and scenic boardwalks provides opportunities to explore multiple ecosystems, and Plein Air 2026 requires all artwork to be created within the Preserve grounds on specified dates, displayed in the Auditorium Gallery, and includes juried prizes for Best in Show and other awards, with a requested 20% donation from artwork sales to Friends of Brooker Creek Preserve, Inc.
Last updated February 12, 2026.
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