Florida scrub-jay — Palm Bay, Florida

Yes: federal notices from 2004 to 2006 state that 20 families of Florida scrub-jays persist inside the City of Palm Bay, in habitat fragmented by residential development.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) has repeated the same finding in its Palm Bay permit notices: within the city, 20 families of scrub-jays persist in habitat fragmented by residential development, and those birds belong to a larger complex spread across southern Brevard and northern Indian River counties (Federal Register, July 25, 2006). The agency's 2004 notice adds that data were collected from 12 scrub-jay families within Palm Bay city limits during the 2000 and 2001 nesting seasons (Federal Register, March 25, 2004).

The bird has been federally listed as threatened since June 3, 1987, and USFWS names Brevard County as home to one of the largest remaining populations, especially the coastal scrub at Merritt Island and Kennedy Space Center (USFWS ECOS profile). Palm Bay's families are a different case. The same federal notices warn that scrub-jays in urban areas typically do not raise young that survive to adulthood, and conclude that over the long term the birds within the City of Palm Bay are unlikely to persist, so conservation money should buy large parcels outside the reach of urbanization (Federal Register, July 25, 2006). That reasoning shaped the city's permit.

Palm Bay's Habitat Conservation Plan is the city's agreement with USFWS that lets lot owners build in scrub-jay areas under one city-wide Incidental Take Permit, in exchange for an environmental fee and nesting-season clearing limits.

The City of Palm Bay applied for the permit in 2006. A Federal Register notice of August 28, 2006 describes the request: an Incidental Take Permit under section 10(a)(1)(B) of the Endangered Species Act for residential, commercial, industrial and municipal construction within Palm Bay city limits, covering the Florida scrub-jay and the eastern indigo snake, with gopher tortoise coverage if that species became federally listed during the 30-year term (Federal Register, August 28, 2006). Public comments were due October 27, 2006, under permit number TE118199-0.

The plan's minimization steps were to bar land clearing in nesting season where active nests are on or near a lot, to keep scrub vegetation for landscaping in new development, and to publish web-based education on the covered species (Federal Register, August 28, 2006, page 2). The fees would buy, manage and restore scrub-jay habitat elsewhere. The Palm Bay Building Department says USFWS issued the city its Incidental Take Permit in 2007 after approving the plan (Palm Bay Building Department).

Owners of Palm Bay lots inside the mapped scrub-jay polygons may build year round but may not clear land from March 1 through June 30, and their building permits carry an extra environmental fee.

The Palm Bay Scrub Jay Lots page dates the program to April 23, 2007, when lot owners throughout the city could again obtain building permits in scrub jay areas; it states that permits are charged an additional $125 per quarter acre and that annual nest monitoring and reporting are permit conditions (Palm Bay Scrub Jay Lots). The mapped parcels sit in Port Malabar subdivisions in the southeast section of Palm Bay, drawn from the city unit map with scrub polygons supplied by USFWS.

The Palm Bay Building Department puts the scale at over 42,500 acres of anticipated Scrub Jay permit area and three recognized habitat areas, also called occupied habitat polygons, shown on an interactive city map (Palm Bay Building Department). Clearing is the restricted act, not building. The city HCP page allows clearing in nesting season only where a biological survey finds no active nest, where vegetation poses a persistent fire hazard to developed property next door, or within 25 feet of an adjacent developed lot where nuisance vegetation is encroaching (Palm Bay Habitat Conservation Plan). Outside the season, a clearing permit may be issued from July 1 through the end of February if the property meets certain requirements (Palm Bay Building Department).

The city HCP page explains the fee's purpose: a conservation agency designated by USFWS uses it to buy large tracts of habitat that better preserve the covered species, and the rules live in Chapter 172, Environmental Regulations, of the Palm Bay Code (Palm Bay Habitat Conservation Plan). Last verified: October 12, 2026, on the City of Palm Bay Building Department habitat conservation pages.

Before the city permit, each Palm Bay owner of a lot near scrub-jays had to apply to USFWS for an individual permit and pay a mitigation contribution, a process published lot by lot in the Federal Register.

USFWS drew the line for those cases with a 438-foot buffer. Using the 2000 and 2001 Palm Bay data, the agency found the maximum average shift of a territory between years was 438 feet and drew that buffer around known territories and sightings to mark occupied habitat in urban Palm Bay; it estimated urban territory sizes at 5.2 to 10.8 acres (Federal Register, March 25, 2004). The 2004 case involved two lots in Port Malabar Unit 9, about 0.5 acre in all, mitigated with $6,700 to a scrub-jay fund, priced at a two-to-one replacement ratio using southern Brevard County land at an average $5,700 per acre plus a $1,000 per acre management endowment.

The amounts come from each notice: $3,082 for the 0.23 acre lot in 2005 (Federal Register, April 28, 2005), $17,024 for five Palm Bay lots totaling 1.21 acres in July 2006 (Federal Register, July 25, 2006), and $16,296 to The Nature Conservancy fund for four Port Malabar lots in October 2006, with clearing avoided from March 1 through June 30 if active nests were found (Federal Register, October 18, 2006). The city-wide permit replaced this one-lot-at-a-time process for Palm Bay builders.

Gopher tortoise relocation in Palm Bay goes through the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC), not the city, and wildlife violations are reported to FWC at 1 (888) 404-3922.

The City of Palm Bay HCP page states that gopher tortoise permits must be obtained from FWC, that a relocation permit is required before work affecting a tortoise or its burrow, and that local FWC officers answer relocation questions at 321-383-5535 (Palm Bay Habitat Conservation Plan). Questions about protected species on a Palm Bay lot go to the Growth Management Department at (321) 733-3042.

The city's own pages differ on the tortoise. The HCP page says the Incidental Take Permit covers the Florida scrub-jay and the eastern indigo snake (Palm Bay Habitat Conservation Plan), while the Palm Bay Building Department notice says the permit covers three species, adding the gopher tortoise (Palm Bay Building Department). The 2006 application asked for tortoise coverage only if the species became federally listed during the permit term (Federal Register, August 28, 2006), and the HCP page directs that gopher tortoise permits be obtained from FWC.