But you might not know that these same beaches are also the most important sea turtle nesting habitat in the northern hemisphere. While sea turtles nest on many beaches, nowhere else comes close to the numbers or density of nesting here in south Brevard. In 2013, there were 740 nests per kilometer! Researchers have determined that loggerhead and green turtles prefer steep, narrow, high energy, natural beaches; and this area suits that description perfectly. It turns out surfers and sea turtles like the same thing – Florida’s natural beaches!
In the early 1990s the Archie Carr National Wildlife Refuge (ACNWR) was created to preserve this nesting habitat and other barrier island habitats like coastal strand, maritime hammocks, and mangrove shorelines along the Indian River Lagoon. This is an unusual NWR: there is some embedded, pre-existing development, but the wise decision was made to preserve many natural areas for future generations of sea turtles and humans. The United States Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS) manages the ACNWR and owns much of the property, but the total area in conservation is augmented by state and Brevard County lands.
After putting a few hundred sea oats in the dune line in first phase of this project, we returned on May 9th to place over 400 coastal natives on the backdune/coastal strand/hammock. Among the species: beauty berry, coral bean, fiddlewood, golden beach creeper (threatened), sand live oak, saw palmetto, seaside goldenrod, white stopper, and wild coffee.
As we finished up and stepped back to look at what we’d accomplished, butterflies seemed to appear from out of nowhere and started lighting on the plants. They’d ‘’found’’ these new food sources almost as soon as we’d put them in. I’m told that migratory birds will also benefit from this concentration of natives - which just added to our satisfaction.
Notes: thanks to Mike Daniel, Chair of the Sebastian Inlet Chapter, for writing this blog post! Photo documentation by James Kilby of KilbyPhoto LLC is invaluable. Volunteering his time and talent to our chapter provides us with artfully crafted, evocative images.