Environmentally Endangered Lands Program — Brevard County, Florida

The Environmentally Endangered Lands Program, known as EEL, is the Brevard County program, established in 1990, that acquires and manages environmentally endangered lands as sanctuaries, from Enchanted Forest in Titusville to Malabar Scrub in Malabar and Micco Scrub on Micco Road.

The county describes the program as preserving Brevard's most sensitive natural habitats while providing passive recreation and environmental education (Brevard County EEL Program). It is a willing-seller program: it can only buy property from people who want to sell, and it does not condemn land (EEL Program FAQs). The Brevard County Tax Collector lists Environmentally Endangered Lands and Water Areas as one of the county taxing authorities, reached at (321) 633-2153, the same number as the County General Fund (Brevard County Tax Collector).

The program's first purchase is on record with the state. The Enchanted Forest Sanctuary was the first property purchased by Brevard County's Environmentally Endangered Lands Program, and it is still the program's flagship, with an education center and four miles of trails at 444 Columbia Blvd. in Titusville (Great Florida Birding and Wildlife Trail). The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission's birding trail also names Malabar Scrub Sanctuary and Pine Island Conservation Area on Merritt Island as EEL sites (Malabar Scrub Sanctuary; Pine Island Conservation Area).

Much of what the EEL Program owns sits inside a larger state effort. The Florida Department of Environmental Protection's Brevard Coastal Scrub Ecosystem project protects scrub fragments along the Atlantic Coastal Ridge for the state-threatened Florida scrub-jay, and it describes the coastal scrub that once paralleled the Indian River as now a set of small fragments surrounded by housing (FDEP Florida Forever, page 1). Most of the land the EEL Program has in conservation was purchased in partnership with the State of Florida, according to the county (EEL Program FAQs).

The Environmentally Endangered Lands Program is paid for through a voted property tax line, 0.0458 mills for 2025-26, and it stretches that money by buying land with state and water management district partners.

The Florida Department of Revenue's comparison of Brevard levies lists the line as Environmentally Endangered Lands - Voted(Florida Department of Revenue, Table 1). The EEL rate fell from 0.0467 mills to 0.0458 mills between the two years while the dollars levied rose.

At 0.0458 mills, a Brevard parcel pays 4.58 cents for every $1,000 of taxable value to the EEL line, which is $4.58 on $100,000 of taxable value, before any other county, city or school levy (Table 1). The 2025-26 adopted figure of $3,289,482 is the same dollar amount the table shows at the rolled-back rate.

Voters did not always say yes. On November 7, 1989, a countywide Environmentally Endangered Lands/Parks referendum failed, with 21,430 votes for (34.27 percent) and 41,101 against (65.73 percent) (Brevard County Supervisor of Elections). Less than a year later, in September 1990, Brevard's citizens approved a referendum authorizing the county to issue up to $55 million in bonds to acquire, protect and maintain environmentally endangered lands, paid for by a .25-mill ad valorem tax, about 25 cents on every $1,000 of assessed land value, levied annually for 20 years until 2011 (EEL Program FAQs). Residents reaffirmed the program under a second referendum in 2004.

The county reports that the EEL Program has helped preserve approximately 28,000 acres of land with $42 million in partner and grant funding with the State of Florida and the St. Johns River Water Management District (EEL Program FAQs).

State partnerships stretch the local money. Brevard County, an acquisition partner in the Brevard Coastal Scrub Ecosystem project, committed $10 million towards acquisition and $2.6 million for site management, and The Nature Conservancy works under contract with Brevard County on acquisitions (FDEP, page 6). EEL also proposed setting aside $2.6 million from its excess ad valorem revenues to start a management endowment for the sanctuary network, and mitigation agreements with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service have paid for some management in the Valkaria core area (FDEP, page 7).

EEL sponsors land into the state's Brevard Coastal Scrub Ecosystem project, a Florida Forever priority since 1993 that counts 34,187 acres in its boundary and 22,306 acres acquired.

The 2026 Florida Forever plan puts the remaining 11,881 acres at a 2025 assessed value of $119,942,804 (FDEP, page 1). The project includes 20 areas of scrub, scrubby flatwoods, floodplain marsh and marsh lake along the Atlantic Coastal Ridge and St. Johns River marshes, the land a Florida scrub-jay population on the east coast depends on.

Two of the largest boundary additions came from the county program. On December 19, 2000, the state Acquisition and Restoration Council approved a 9,528-acre addition sponsored by the Brevard County Environmentally Endangered Lands Program, covering 2,250 landowners, with a Malabar Expansion of 959.85 acres and a Valkaria/Micco Expansion in two parts (FDEP, page 4). On December 5, 2003, the council approved a 7,444-acre addition, again sponsored by the Brevard County EEL, made up of three ownerships.

Boundaries also shrink. In 2009 the council removed 1,667 acres in the Malabar Expansion and Valkaria/Micco Expansion at owners' request, and in February 2025 it removed about 6,347 acres judged unsuitable for state acquisition (FDEP, page 5; page 6). Land inside a boundary is a target, not a sanctuary, until a public agency buys it.

Management is split by site. The state plan says Brevard County will manage the original six sites and the Valkaria/Micco Expansion; the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission will manage the six sites added in 1996 and Ten Mile Ridge; and the City of Titusville will manage the Falcon Woods portion (FDEP, page 6).

Brevard County's EEL sanctuary directory lists 21 sites, from Scottsmoor and Mims to Melbourne Beach and Micco Road, including Enchanted Forest, Pine Island, Malabar Scrub, Micco Scrub, Dicerandra Scrub, Fox Lake and Indian Mound Station.

The county directory gives each site's address (EEL Sanctuaries). The table below lists the Environmentally Endangered Lands sites that also have an acreage or opening hours in a state source. Acreage in the FWC column is the size the birding trail lists today; acreage from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection is what Brevard County acquired in the year shown.

Pine Island is a shared site: the birding trail lists it as managed by Brevard County and the St. Johns River Water Management District, with ponds and paddling routes out to the Indian River Lagoon by way of Sam's Creek (Pine Island Conservation Area). Enchanted Forest has grown: Brevard County acquired 41 acres in June 2007 and added it to the sanctuary boundary, and in December 2007 the county acquired Fox Lake Sanctuary at 2,568 acres (FDEP, page 5).

Entry is free at the four sites on the birding trail, and each lists Brevard County as a manager (Micco Scrub Sanctuary; Enchanted Forest Sanctuary). The county directory also lists Coconut Point, Maritime Hammock and Doc Ehrhart sanctuaries in Melbourne Beach and Ulumay Wildlife Sanctuary on Merritt Island, among others (EEL Sanctuaries).

In South Brevard the EEL Program's sites include Malabar Scrub Sanctuary in Malabar and Micco Scrub Sanctuary on Micco Road, both home to Florida scrub-jays, plus Jordan Scrub Sanctuary in Malabar and Grant Flatwoods Sanctuary in Grant-Valkaria.

Malabar Scrub was bought in pieces. Brevard County acquired 60 acres in May 1993 and 285 acres in July 1993, then 30.86 acres in January 1994 and 20 acres in October 1994 (FDEP, page 3). The Brookhollow piece, 173.09 acres, followed in 2006, bringing the county's total at the Malabar Scrub site to 568.95 acres (FDEP, page 5).

Visitors find breeding Florida scrub-jays there. The birding trail describes Malabar Scrub Sanctuary at 1501 Malabar Woods Blvd. as part of the EEL program, with scrub, xeric hammock, flatwoods, sandhills, swamp and ponds, 8.3 miles of sandy hike and bike trails and six miles of equestrian trails, open daily from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. (Malabar Scrub Sanctuary). Its phone listing is (321) 255-4466.

Micco Scrub came in one purchase. On March 9, 1994, the state council approved a 1,322-acre Micco Scrub addition sponsored by Brevard County, held by one landowner, and Brevard County acquired the site (FDEP, page 3). Brevard County lists Micco Scrub Sanctuary at 500 Micco Road with a Palm Bay address (EEL Sanctuaries), and the FWC birding trail lists it at 1,736 acres, with a 3-mile red loop trail and a 1.5-mile white loop, open daily from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. (Micco Scrub Sanctuary). The two acreages measure different things: the 1994 addition and the sanctuary as listed today.

The state project's Valkaria/Micco Expansion, which the state plan assigns to Brevard County to manage, is another South Brevard piece, and the Valkaria core area is where federal mitigation agreements have helped pay for management (FDEP, page 7). The state itself also bought the 14.72-acre South Brevard Trail Connector parcel in Turkey Creek Sanctuary on October 3, 2003 through its Office of Greenways and Trails (FDEP, page 4).

Environmentally Endangered Lands sites in the Brevard scrub project are managed as fire-dependent natural areas with limited public use, where the state plan lists site security, burn management and the status of listed species among the first management tasks.

The state plan says all sites are fire-maintained communities with an immediate need for fire management, and that the Brevard County EEL is preparing a Conceptual Natural Areas Management Manual for all sanctuary sites (FDEP, page 7). Early work focuses on site security, burn management, the status of listed species, a core area for resource protection, passive recreation areas and environmental education.

Public use is deliberately light. The Brevard Coastal Scrub Ecosystem project is designated a wildlife and environmental area with limited public use, including picnicking and environmental education (FDEP, page 2). The species list explains why: the Florida Natural Areas Inventory records the Florida scrub-jay, eastern indigo snake, gopher tortoise, Florida black bear and the plant Titusville balm within the project.

Recreation is shaped to fit the land. The county says the best way to protect a sanctuary and provide public access is to support passive recreation, activities that do not abuse a site's natural resources, biological diversity or environmental qualities (Brevard County EEL Program). At Malabar Scrub, six miles of equestrian trails are available alongside the 8.3 miles of hike and bike trails, and the state plan says fire management will be a vital component of each site plan (Malabar Scrub Sanctuary; FDEP, page 7).

Last verified: October 12, 2026, on the Brevard County EEL Program, Florida Department of Environmental Protection, Florida Department of Revenue, Brevard County Tax Collector, Brevard County Supervisor of Elections and FWC Great Florida Birding and Wildlife Trail websites.