VALDOSTA — Water, that most precious life-giving commodity that becomes more and more the focal point of controversy with recent record droughts and growing concerns over global warming trends, is the gift that keeps on giving.

That’s why Cherry Creek Properties Inc., made up of a group of local real estate and property developers, has decided to take critical action to protect the invaluable resource for the Valdosta Metropolitan Service Area’s growing population.

Cherry Creek Properties Inc. owns the Cherry Creek Wetland Mitigation Bank, which consists of 520 acres just north of the city limits behind Cherry Creek and Cherry Creek North subdivisions.

The land sits on the 100 year floodplain and has four miles of frontage on the Withlacoochee River. Its natural flow dumps millions of gallons of water into the aquifer that provides local communities with potable water for drinking, irrigation and more.

Cherry Creek Properties Inc.’s board members, a who’s who of local developers, announced this week that they are donating the wetlands bank to the University of Georgia’s Warnell School of Forestry.

The land has been appraised at a value of approximately $2.5 million, but the company’s gift will keep on giving in many ways. Monetarily, the gift will also provide the UGA Warnell School with an annual percentage of the money that comes from wetland credits that are paid into the bank by developers and builders who pay the bank for wetlands credits when they develop land that has wetlands and mitigation is required.

Mitigation allows permit applicants to optimize their land while also helping to restore wetlands that might be disturbed or destroyed by their projects. Basically, if a project would harm a certain number of acres, the developer pays a wetlands bank to help that wetland maintain its capacity for retaining the local aquifer.

The Arch Foundation of UGA acknowledged Cherry Creek Properties Inc.’s gift in a recent letter to the company.

“On behalf of the University of Georgia, we want to express our gratitude for your generous gift to our institution,” wrote Denise A. Gabriel, associate director of Gift Accounting and Alumni Records in UGA’s Division of External Affairs and Development.

Cherry Creek Properties’ board members, who include James Lee Herndon, Larry Lee, Larry Dean and the late Don Reames say they decided to donate the bank as a way to give back to the local community for all the things the community has given to them in their careers and personal lives.

The late Reames, who operated Reames Construction Co., would have “supported their decision,” said Herndon.

“Don was a very community oriented person,” Herndon said. “He would have wanted us to do this.”

The pristine wetlands, with its well preserved habitat for wildlife and critically strategic position in the local flow of water into the aquifer here, has fallen into good hands, Herndon said.

“The Warnell School of Forestry is one of the top two colleges of forestry in the nation,” he said. “They will be able to ensure that our water is protected for our children and our children’s children. Also, Valdosta State University, ABAC in Tifton, Georgia Southern University and local public schools will be able to use the land for research projects to study the environment. Putting this in the hands of the University System of Georgia is a big win for everyone. This is a good example of how development and nature can work together.”

Cherry Creek Properties Inc. has been conducting surveys and monitoring the wetlands for more than five years, and will turn its research data over to UGA in the transfer. It also completed a project that will help to restore damage to the natural flow of the water that was done as much as 70 years ago when the spillover dam at Lake Cleave was constructed.

That dam diverted Lake Cleave’s flow to and from the Withlacoochee River, and aquifer-feeding tributaries, from the natural creek bed. Potentially, millions of gallons of water that would have found its way into the local aquifer have been diverted as a result. The spillover dam also caused unnatural vegetation to develop, plants not conducive with what mother nature had supplied to foster a sensitive, healthy wetland.

But the Cherry Creek Properties board paid for a project to reverse the damage, installing diversion pipes some 18 months ago under the eroding ground under the dam to take the water back into the original creek bed, which currently sits in a wooded area just south of the dam in a clump of woods.

Also, the company has planted 12,000 plants of the wetland-supporting varieties in the past four years, to replace the natural habitat that had died out as a result of the eco-damage done by the dam, Herndon said.

Now, millions of gallons of water will be naturally cleansed by Mother Nature and restored to the aquifer as a result, Herndon said.

“Nature is the perfect engineer, but we didn’t really understand that 50 years ago,” Herndon said. “Frank Rose, who owned all this land back then, was a consummate environmentalist. But he, like the rest of us, didn’t understand what we know now. No one is to blame for what happened. We’re just happy we were able to learn what we know in time to save this incredible resource.

“You have to give nature its position, which is what we’ve done with this project,” he said. “That spillover dam at Lake Cleave, however, will always be there, unless surrounding homeowners that own the property decide to do away with it.”

The University of Florida had shown strong interest in obtaining the wetland bank, but with competition and now lawsuits pending over water flows from Georgia into Florida, the company felt it best to keep the wetland bank in Georgian hands, Herndon said.

“We just wanted to do something for our community because it has given so much to all of us,” Herndon said. “Water is the gift that keeps on giving. We couldn’t think of a better way to say thank you. If we don’t have clean air to breathe and clean water to drink, what have we accomplished?”