Malabar Scrub Sanctuary — Malabar, Florida

Malabar Scrub Sanctuary is a 577-acre Brevard County Environmentally Endangered Lands preserve in the Town of Malabar, open every day for day use only, with its listed address at 1501 Malabar Woods Boulevard (Brevard County EEL Program).

The county lists xeric hammock, scrub, scrubby flatwoods, pine flatwoods, sand pine scrub, ponds and sloughs inside the Malabar preserve, and pitches the site as a place to see how wetland and upland communities interact (Brevard County). The Town of Malabar posts the same description on its own parks page (Town of Malabar).

The three acreage figures come from three agencies. Brevard County says 577 acres, the FWC Great Florida Birding and Wildlife Trail listing says 568 acres (FWC), and the 2026 Florida Forever plan from FDEP totals 568.95 acres bought by the county at the Malabar Scrub site (FDEP, page 5).

The Cameron Preserve runs through the middle of Malabar Scrub Sanctuary, cutting it into an east tract and a west tract, and the Al Tuttle Boundary Canal Trail forms its northern and eastern edge (Town of Malabar).

That split explains the Malabar trail map. FDEP describes the Cameron Preserve as 100 acres owned and maintained by the Town of Malabar, and its story map lists the Sandhill Trailhead and Malabar Community Park as main access points for the east tract, and the Englar Ave and Briar Creek Blvd trailheads for the west tract. Both tracts can also be reached on connecting trails inside the Cameron Preserve (FDEP story map).

An old road is now a trail in the east tract. Malabar Woods Road still runs through the sanctuary but is closed to vehicles, and the FDEP Office of Greenways and Trails describes the abandoned pavement as a 3/4 mile trail through the heart of the preserve, popular with walkers and cyclists (FDEP story map). FWC notes the paved road through the Malabar site is accessible to the physically challenged, with interpretive loop trails branching off it (FWC).

The northern border trail is the paved Al Tuttle Trail, a 10-foot-wide multi-use path that the Space Coast TPO says runs along the border of Malabar Scrub Sanctuary from the Sand Hill Trail Head on Marie Street and officially opened in 2013 (Space Coast TPO).

Malabar Scrub Sanctuary has six listed ways in: three for the east tract and three for the west tract, three of them reached from the Palm Bay side of the line (Town of Malabar; Town of Malabar presentation, page 24).

The Sandhill Crane Trailhead is the best equipped Malabar entrance. The town calls it the eastern entrance to the sanctuary and the southern entrance to the Al Tuttle Trail, with a pavilion, picnic tables, horse stables and ADA accessible bathrooms, open dawn to dusk (Town of Malabar).

Restrooms are the practical difference between entrances. Brevard County says restrooms for the sanctuary are at the adjacent Malabar Community Park (Brevard County), and the town lists restrooms and ample parking at the park at 1850 Malabar Road (Town of Malabar). The FWC listing marks the sanctuary itself as having parking but no restroom (FWC). On the west side, the Englar Ave trailhead sits inside a Palm Bay residential neighborhood with limited roadside parking only (FDEP story map).

The east tract of Malabar Scrub Sanctuary has two main loops, White and Red, and the west tract has three main trails, Red, Blue and Yellow, according to the Town of Malabar (Town of Malabar).

The two Malabar tracts ride differently. The town says the east side stays on mostly high and dry ground with well marked single track for hiking, biking and horses, while the west side is best known for two extensive trail bridges that cross a tributary of Turkey Creek (Town of Malabar). The Yellow Trail on the west side is the connector into the Cameron Preserve.

FWC counts 8.3 miles of sandy scrub trail for hikers and cyclists at Malabar Scrub and six miles of equestrian trail, and says the sandy trails give better chances to see scrub-jays than the paved road (FWC). The trails are busy. A Town of Malabar presentation hosted by FDEP says EEL Program trail cameras, projected over 12 months, showed a use rate of 38,000 visits a year at the sanctuary (Town of Malabar presentation, page 26).

Malabar Scrub Sanctuary is a refuge for the Florida scrub-jay, gopher tortoise and Eastern indigo snake, three species Brevard County says benefit from controlled burns (Brevard County EEL Program).

Fire is part of the Malabar landscape on purpose. The county says trails pass through areas recently treated with prescribed fire, and that the regrowth after a burn turns lush and green within a short time (Brevard County). The county ties that fire program directly to the three listed species at the Malabar site.

FWC lists breeding Florida Scrub-Jays at the Malabar sanctuary along with Wood Storks, Glossy Ibises, Green Herons, Red-bellied Woodpeckers and Eastern Towhees, and names Short-tailed Hawk as its species highlight (FWC Great Florida Birding and Wildlife Trail). Mammals and reptiles on the FWC list include Gopher Tortoise, Bobcat, River Otter and Eastern Indigo Snake. The FWC advice for Malabar birders is to come in the morning, before the heat and full sun.

Pets, smoking, alcohol, motorized vehicles and hunting are all banned at Malabar Scrub Sanctuary, and visitors are asked to stay on the trail (Brevard County EEL Program).

The Brevard County rules for the Malabar preserve also forbid feeding or disturbing wildlife and taking plants, animals, archeological or cultural resources. Listed activities are free parking, biking, equestrian riding, geocaching, hiking and wildlife viewing (Brevard County). The pet ban covers the trails entered from Malabar Community Park, where the town park and the county preserve sit side by side.

Hours differ by source. Brevard County gives Monday through Sunday, day use only, and the FWC listing gives daily hours of 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. (FWC). The Sandhill Crane Trailhead and Malabar Community Park both list park hours of dawn to dusk (Town of Malabar; Town of Malabar).

Brevard County put Malabar Scrub Sanctuary together from five recorded purchases between 1993 and 2006, ending with the 173.09-acre Brookhollow piece, according to the FDEP Florida Forever record (FDEP, page 5).

The early Malabar purchases are listed in the FDEP record for 1993 (FDEP, page 2) and 1994 (FDEP, page 3). In July 1995 the state's Land Acquisition Advisory Council added a Malabar Scrub Sanctuary site of 395 acres to the Brevard Coastal Scrub Ecosystem project, and the record says Brevard County has acquired it (FDEP, page 3).

A larger Malabar plan did not all happen. In December 2000 the state approved a Malabar Expansion of 959.85 acres within a 9,528-acre addition sponsored by the EEL Program (FDEP, page 4). In December 2009, 1,667 acres within the Malabar Expansion and Valkaria/Micco Expansion were removed from the project boundary at landowners' request (FDEP, page 5).

Work on the land continues. The January 12, 2026 Malabar Trails and Greenways Committee agenda carries a monthly item, requested by the committee chair, meant to keep a record of how the sanctuary restoration project affects town trail infrastructure (Town of Malabar, page 8). During that habitat restoration in the west tract, a connector trail was closed, and the committee cut the replacement Impala Trail within 2 months (Town of Malabar, page 23).