Cameron Preserve — Malabar, Florida

The Cameron Preserve is a 100-acre nature preserve owned and maintained by the Town of Malabar, set between the two tracts of the Malabar Scrub Sanctuary (FDEP Office of Greenways and Trails).

Its formal name is the Richard E. Cameron Sr. & Volunteers Nature Preserve. The Cameron Preserve sits in the middle of what the town calls the Malabar Trail System North, with Malabar Scrub Sanctuary East on one side and Malabar Scrub Sanctuary West on the other (Malabar Trail Town application). The preserve bisects the sanctuary, and its trails connect into both halves. To the north it is bordered by the Al Tuttle Boundary Canal Trail, which the Space Coast Transportation Planning Organization lists as a Showcase Trail (Town of Malabar, January 12, 2026).

The neighbors are managed differently. Brevard County's Environmentally Endangered Lands Program manages the Malabar Scrub Sanctuary, which the FDEP story map gives as 577 acres of scrub, flatwoods, ponds and marshes (FDEP story map), while the FWC birding trail lists the sanctuary at 568 acres, open daily from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. (FWC). The Cameron Preserve between them is town land, and the Town of Malabar Trails and Greenways Committee schedules trail days to maintain its trails (Town of Malabar, page 19).

Beyond the sanctuary, the Cameron Preserve also links west toward Palm Bay. Correspondence from the committee chair to FDEP, published in the town's committee packet, describes the forested western section of the preserve as a greenway connector to Turkey Creek Sanctuary, with only a single two-lane road running between the 130-acre sanctuary and the 100-acre Cameron land (Town of Malabar, page 16). Turkey Creek Sanctuary in Palm Bay has a nature center and a 1.8 mile boardwalk (FDEP story map). To the south, the Malabar Trail System South around Jordan Scrub adds about 8 more miles to a north system whose main loop runs about 12 miles (Trail Town application, page 30).

The main entrance to the Cameron Preserve is the Swallow-Tailed Kite Trailhead at the end of Corey Road in Malabar, where roadside parking is available (FDEP story map).

Two more entrances sit on the preserve's northern boundary and let trail users step in from the paved Al Tuttle Trail. Neither has parking (FDEP story map). The Sandhill Trailhead at 1400 Marie St. is the southern entrance to the Al Tuttle Trail, and its amenities include a pavilion, picnic tables, horse stables and ADA accessible restrooms (FDEP story map).

Because the Cameron Preserve trails tie into the Malabar Scrub Sanctuary, a visit can also start at a sanctuary trailhead. The story map lists the Sandhill Trailhead, Malabar Community Park and the Capon Street pedestrian bridge for the east tract, and the Englar Ave. and Briar Creek Blvd. trailheads for the west tract, and notes that both tracts can be reached through the Cameron Preserve (FDEP story map). New signage and maps are posted at the Cameron access points and along the interior trails.

The Cameron Preserve trails are open to walkers, cyclists and equestrians, and the groups are directed to travel the trails in different directions to reduce trail user collisions (FDEP story map).

The Town of Malabar runs the Cameron trails one way. Bikes and hikers travel in one direction while equestrians are asked to ride the opposite way, to give as much warning and notice as possible (Town of Malabar trail history, page 22). The Yellow trail is the main loop, about 2 miles of singletrack linking Malabar Scrub Sanctuary East and West. The newest Cameron Preserve trail, Impala, is about 0.5 mile and lets users finish a loop without leaving the preserve; it takes its name from a 1960s Chevrolet Impala found in the woods while the route was being scouted (Town of Malabar, page 23).

The Impala trail exists because habitat restoration in Malabar Scrub Sanctuary West closed a connector and left a two-way section; the Malabar Trails and Greenways Committee scouted, cut and opened the replacement within 2 months of the closure (Town of Malabar, page 23). During the 2023 fiscal year the committee recommended adding a trailside bike repair area at the Cameron Trail Shelter, with a pump, multi-tool, tire levers and spare inner tubes in a waterproof box (Town of Malabar, page 26).

The Cameron Trail Shelter is a roofed wooden deck inside the Cameron Preserve, built by Malabar Trails and Greenways Committee volunteers between December 2016 and the end of March 2017 (Town of Malabar, page 24).

All of the work on the Malabar shelter was done by volunteers in 6 planned work events. The shelter is a 12 by 12 foot deck under a 16 by 16 foot metal roof, raised about 4 feet above the ground and looking over a wetland (Town of Malabar, page 24). It is marked CTS on Cameron Preserve signage (FDEP story map). The FDEP Trail Town application places it at a main, remote intersection of several Cameron trails and notes it was designed for a possible future ADA trail connection (Trail Town application, page 37).

At its 10/13/2025 meeting the committee voted unanimously to recommend road stabilizer for the Green Trail from the Swallow-Tailed Kite Trailhead to the Cameron Trail Shelter; staff research then put the trail at about 12 inches wide, 1,250 feet long and 2 to 4 inches below the surrounding area, estimated about 1 load of road base, and approved it administratively (Town of Malabar, March 23, 2026). A trail maintenance day in the Cameron Preserve with the Brevard Mountain Bike Association followed on 11/22/2025 (Town of Malabar, December 8, 2025).

The Cameron Preserve was bought through the Florida Communities Trust Preservation 2000 program, in two Town of Malabar purchases known as Greenway I in 1995 and Greenway II in 1996 (Town of Malabar, page 16).

Florida Communities Trust is a state land acquisition program created by Chapter 380, Florida Statutes, and its grants were first funded by bonds issued under Preservation 2000 (FDEP). The Town of Malabar records that the Cameron Preserve was purchased as part of that program and is maintained by the town (Town of Malabar, page 20). A town trail history adds that trails crossed the land from the early 1980s, formal development and markings began in the 1990s, and by 2000 the area was an official preserve (Town of Malabar, page 22).

Malabar was named a Florida Trail Town in 2018, a designation the FDEP Office of Greenways and Trails ties to the town's efforts to establish walking, bicycling and paddling trails (FDEP story map). The Malabar Trails and Greenways Committee, active since the early 2000s, meets on the second Monday of each month with 5 voting members, 2 alternates and a liaison from Grant-Valkaria (Town of Malabar, page 19).

As of March 2026 the Town of Malabar had sent a preliminary proposal for a revised Cameron Preserve management plan to the Florida Communities Trust through FDEP, alongside plans for firebreaks, mechanical vegetation reduction and controlled burns (Town of Malabar, March 23, 2026).

The Cameron Preserve is split into four fire units, and town notes say all four burned in a wildfire in 2012, are about 25 percent basin marsh and have had most invasive trees, chiefly Melaleuca, removed (Town of Malabar, page 16). The restoration goals call for refreshing existing firebreaks, adding an east-west break to make fire regions of about 20 acres each, keeping scrub oaks and longleaf pines and reducing sand pines, and burning the two southern units with assistance from the Malabar Fire Department if that is appropriate for the grant (Town of Malabar, page 11).

On 02/09/2026, FDEP, FCT, the Turkey Creek Sanctuary manager, the EEL Program Director and Malabar staff reviewed the proposed changes by video call, and FCT staff recommended that the town coordinate with FWC Protected Species Coordinators (Town of Malabar, page 9). An amended statement of work for the Cameron firebreaks and mechanical reduction has gone to the Division of Forestry, and the Malabar committee agreed at its 10/13/25 meeting to wait until FCT confirms the proposed plan.