$200K Grant Approved for Circle B Bar Reserve Pond Project
by James Coulter
Visitors to Polk’s Nature Discovery Center will be able to enjoy new recreational and educational amenities, including a new trail picnic pavilion, now that the county has approved a grant for $200K.
At their meeting on Tues. Mar 18, the Board of County Commissioners (BoCC) of Polk County voted unanimously to approve a resolution approving a grant agreement between the county and the State of Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP).
The grant agreement will provide $200,000 in funding, which will require a county match, to help facilitate the construction of new recreational and education amenities at Polk’s Nature Discovery Center at Circle B Bar Reserve.
According to the agenda memo, these new amenities will include an “additional multi-use trail, a floating boardwalk, picnic pavilion, and educational kiosk” and are expected to “enhance visitor experience.”
The project was inspired during the restoration of an old borrow pit (pond) in “an area previously not open to the public” in 2022. That area was identified as a place to potentially “enhance stormwater educational programming.”
The Polk’s Nature Discovery Center is located in the Circle B Bar Reserve on 1,267 acres of land that was purchased by the county in 2000. Since 2008, it has helped educate the public about Polk’s natural flora and fauna with several recreational and educational amenities including seven miles of natural hiking trail.
