Jordan Scrub Sanctuary — Malabar, Florida

Jordan Scrub Sanctuary is a 354-acre preserve in the Town of Malabar run by Brevard County's Environmentally Endangered Lands Program, with lakes, seasonal marshes and scrubby flatwoods (Brevard County EEL Program).

The Malabar sanctuary is a mix of open water and dry ground. The county describes scenic lakes, seasonal marshes and scrubby flatwoods inside the 354 acres, and says the land was acquired in partnership with the State of Florida (Brevard County). The state's Florida Forever plan lists a Jordan Blvd site in the same Brevard Coastal Scrub Ecosystem project as the Malabar Scrub Sanctuary (FDEP Florida Forever plan, page 3).

Trails at Jordan Scrub are still being planned. Brevard County says recreational planning for Jordan Scrub recently began and that more trails are planned for future development, so the trail network on the Marie Street land is expected to change (county sanctuary page). The county posts a 2025 Jordan Scrub Sanctuary Trail Map as a PDF on the same page, which is the current reference for the marked routes.

Jordan Scrub has two working entrances today: a Brevard County parking lot at the southern end of Marie Street and an access point at the western end of Jordan Blvd, according to the Town of Malabar (Town of Malabar).

The Marie Street entrance is the one the county lists as the sanctuary address, 2425 Marie Street in Malabar, with hours of Monday through Sunday, day use only (Brevard County). The town's photo set for the site shows welcome signs and kiosks at both the Marie Street and Jordan Blvd entrances, a sanctuary rules sign and a Marie Street trail entrance (Eagle's Nest Trailhead page).

A third Malabar entrance is on the way. The Town of Malabar Trails and Greenways Committee is developing the Eagle's Nest Trailhead to reach the northwestern corner of Jordan Scrub, and the town lists future restrooms, a viewing platform, picnic tables, horse stables and ample parking for horse trailers there (Town of Malabar). The town gives no opening date, and it asks trail users to check back for updates on the Eagle's Nest project.

Marie Street also holds a second Malabar trailhead. The Space Coast TPO says the Al Tuttle Trail is reached from the Sand Hill Trail Head on Marie Street in Malabar and runs along the border of the Malabar Scrub Sanctuary (Space Coast TPO), while the county lot for Jordan Scrub sits at the southern end of the same street (Town of Malabar). Neither the county nor the town lists restrooms at the current Jordan Scrub entrances; the restrooms named on the Eagle's Nest page are future plans.

Brevard County lists biking, equestrian use, geocaching and wildlife viewing at Jordan Scrub, with free parking, and bans pets, smoking, alcohol, motorized vehicles and hunting on the Malabar sanctuary (Brevard County EEL Program).

Jordan Scrub adds trail distance to the Malabar system. The Town of Malabar's Florida Trail Town presentation, hosted by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, says Jordan Scrub in the Malabar Trail System South holds about 8 additional miles of trail, on top of about 12 miles in the main loop of the Malabar Trail System North (Town of Malabar presentation, page 30).

The pet ban covers the whole Jordan Scrub sanctuary. Dogs are not allowed anywhere on the Marie Street or Jordan Blvd trails, since the county lists pets alongside smoking, alcohol and motorized vehicles as prohibited (county sanctuary page). Horses are a different case: equestrian use is a listed activity, and the planned Eagle's Nest Trailhead is designed around horse stables and trailer parking (Town of Malabar).

Bald eagles fish in the lake at Jordan Scrub and Florida scrub-jays forage in its scrubby flatwoods, the two species Brevard County names for the Malabar sanctuary (Brevard County).

The scrub-jay is the reason preserves like Jordan Scrub exist. Brevard County's EEL Program estimates a 70% reduction in scrub habitat and an 87% decline in Florida Scrub-Jays on the Brevard County mainland between 1940 and 1999, as the county population grew (Brevard County EEL Program).

The state record says the same about the wider project that includes the Jordan Blvd site. The Florida Department of Environmental Protection writes that the Brevard Coastal Scrub Ecosystem project will protect some of the best scrub fragments in the county and aid the survival of the state-threatened Florida scrub-jay (FDEP Florida Forever plan, page 1).

The lakes add a second set of birds to the Malabar site. Open water draws the bald eagles the county describes, while the scrubby flatwoods are where the county says scrub-jays forage (county sanctuary page). The county page does not publish a full species list for Jordan Scrub.

A site called Jordan Blvd, 833 acres, entered the state's Brevard coastal scrub project on July 14, 1995, when the Land Acquisition Advisory Council approved a four-site addition sponsored by Brevard County (FDEP Florida Forever plan, page 3).

That 1995 addition covered 1,410 acres in all: Dicerandra Scrub at 44 acres, Malabar Scrub Sanctuary at 395 acres, Canova Beach Scrub at 138 acres and Jordan Blvd at 833 acres, with multiple landowners and a taxable value of $13,283,659 (FDEP, page 3). The same entry says Brevard County has acquired the Malabar and Dicerandra Scrub sites; it gives no acquisition total for Jordan Blvd.

The two acreage figures describe different things. The 833 acres is the boundary of the Jordan Blvd project site in the state plan, while 354 acres is the size of the sanctuary Brevard County manages today on Marie Street (Brevard County). This page uses the county figure for the Malabar sanctuary itself.

Yes, the Malabar and Grant-Valkaria trail committees have proposed it, since the Space Coast TPO alignment down Marie Street meets about 1,000 to 1,200 feet of wetlands in the Jordan Scrub area (Town of Malabar presentation, page 51).

That stretch of Marie Street would need a very long boardwalk that is not compatible with equestrian use, the presentation says, while a route through the EEL Jordan Scrub preserve would use mostly existing double-track trails and need much less boardwalk (page 51). It adds that the EEL Jordan Scrub Management Plan envisioned that the linear trail may need to run through Jordan Scrub. The proposed route follows the Jordan Blvd right of way along an existing trail (page 52).

The idea came out of a joint meeting. A planning session on January 12, 2017, brought together the Malabar Trails and Greenways Committee and the Grant-Valkaria Greenways and Trails Board, which judged the Twin Lakes Alignment the best trail connection between the two towns (Town of Malabar presentation, page 49).

The larger project is regional. In the Space Coast TPO's description, the Al Tuttle Trail is one piece of a planned South Brevard Linear Trail of 22 miles, meant to link preserve lands across Malabar, Palm Bay, Grant-Valkaria and Micco (Space Coast TPO). Jordan Scrub sits on the Malabar to Grant-Valkaria leg of that plan.