Pelican Island Centennial (2003) — Sebastian, Florida

In March 2003 Sebastian became the national stage for the 100th birthday of the National Wildlife Refuge System. According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, on March 14, 2003, Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton was joined by thousands of wildlife enthusiasts, members of Congress and notable conservationists in Sebastian, which the Service described as home to Pelican Island, the first National Wildlife Refuge, created by President Theodore Roosevelt on March 14, 1903.

The celebration ran four days, from March 13 to March 16, 2003, and moved between the Indian River Mall in Vero Beach, Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge on the Indian River Lagoon, and Riverview Park on the Sebastian waterfront. It left a permanent mark at the refuge: the Centennial Trail, its engraved boardwalk and an observation tower that, in the Service's words, offered for the first time views of the pelicans for which the refuge was named. The centennial events in Sebastian also served as the official kickoff, and the Service noted that celebrations occurred simultaneously at wildlife refuges across America and continued throughout 2003.

A Service events notice dated February 25, 2003, titled Pelican Events for National Wildlife Refuge Centennial, laid out the schedule. On Thursday, March 13, a National Wildlife Refuge System time capsule display was dedicated at 1:00 pm at the Indian River Mall in Vero Beach, with artifacts from some of the 540 national wildlife refuges then in the system. A media advisory of March 4, 2003 adds that Service Director Steve Williams would unveil the national time capsule there, with entertainment from the Peabody Orlando Ducks, Challenger the bald eagle and a Theodore Roosevelt impersonator.

Friday, March 14, was the centerpiece. A ceremony at Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge was followed by a public Centennial Celebration Ceremony at 10:00 am at Riverview Park in Sebastian, with gates opening at 9 am. That evening at 7:00 pm, Riverview Park hosted a concert featuring Sebastian's own Arlo Guthrie, followed by fireworks, an event the Service lists as sponsored by the City of Sebastian and the Sebastian River Area Chamber.

Saturday and Sunday, March 15 and 16, 2003, brought the 11th Annual Pelican Island Wildlife Festival to Riverview Park from 9:30 am to 4:00 pm. The festival program included the first day opening of the Centennial Trail and Observation Tower at the refuge, a U.S. Postal Service Pelican stamp booth, live wildlife shows by Jack Hanna and Jim Fowler, exhibitors, children's activities and boat tours to view Pelican Island. The Service noted that all events were free and open to the public.

The ceremony was built around a boardwalk. The Department of the Interior release of March 14, 2003, reports that Secretary Norton presided at Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge by installing the final plank in the Centennial Boardwalk, leading to a new viewing tower overlooking Pelican Island. Each plank was inscribed with the name of a wildlife refuge created in the previous 100 years, 540 in all, and the site was rededicated as a national historic landmark.

Several federal agencies used the Sebastian event for their own centennial announcements. The Service reports that at the public celebration the United States Postal Service issued a new commemorative postage stamp celebrating the creation of the Pelican Island refuge, and the United States Mint announced a five medal National Wildlife Refuge System Centennial Medal Series, featuring President Theodore Roosevelt, with proceeds going to refuge conservation programs. Walt Disney Company Vice-Chairman Roy Disney presented a $100,000 gift at the Sebastian kickoff to establish the Centennial Commission Scholarship Fund for Conservation.

The ceremony also had a local hands-on element. According to the 2003 media advisory, students from Pelican Island Elementary School planted trees as part of the habitat restoration effort at Pelican Island NWR, Voices of Liberty from the Walt Disney World Resort performed, and Jack Hanna served as event host. The new observation tower, the Service noted, offered for the first time views of the pelicans for which the Pelican Island refuge was named.

The groundwork was laid in Washington three years earlier. In 2000 the House Committee on Resources reported H.R. 4442, the National Wildlife Refuge System Centennial Act, in House Report 106-715, stating that the bill would establish a commission to promote awareness of the System as it celebrated its centennial anniversary in 2003. The report traces that anniversary to the first refuge, established by Executive Order at Pelican Island, Florida, in 1903 to protect egrets, herons and other birds overharvested for the feather trade. Congress.gov records that H.R. 4442 passed the House on July 11, 2000.

By March 2003 the commission was in place. The Service describes a special Centennial Commission, created by Congress and made up of private-sector members, charged with rallying public support for the refuge system; its chairman, William Horn, spoke at the Sebastian kickoff. On the same day, March 14, 2003, President George W. Bush issued a statement on the centennial noting that one hundred years earlier Theodore Roosevelt had signed the executive order that established America's first wildlife refuge in Pelican Island, Florida. The statement credited Paul Kroegel, the Sebastian settler who became the island's first warden, as the volunteer who encouraged the 1903 order.

The most visible legacy is the Centennial Trail. The refuge's history timeline records that in 2003 the Centennial Trail, boardwalk and observation tower was dedicated and opened on March 14, the date of the National Centennial Celebration held at Pelican Island NWR. The trail is a three-quarter-mile footpath leading to a boardwalk and observation tower that overlooks the Indian River Lagoon with a view of Pelican Island directly across the water.

The boardwalk has grown with the system. The Service's trails page says the trail now incorporates more than 569 engraved planks, one for each refuge established between 1903 and the present, each with the refuge name, its state or territory and establishment year. The 18-foot-tall observation tower, set among the mangrove and cabbage palm fringe of the Indian River Lagoon, provides the closest land-based opportunity to view Pelican Island and has two mounted spotting scopes. The trailhead is at the Pelican Island viewing area parking lot at 11455 Jungle Trail in Vero Beach, Indian River County.

The centennial also arrived just after a rescue of the island itself. The Service reports that Pelican Island measured 5.5 acres in 1903, began shrinking around 1943, and was less than half its original size by 2000. A shoreline project completed in 2001 installed a 165-foot oyster shell wave break and planted cordgrass and mangroves to help rebuild the island before its 100th anniversary.

The 2003 weekend folded the national centennial into a local tradition that predates it and has outlasted it: the Pelican Island Wildlife Festival at Riverview Park, listed in 2003 as the 11th annual event. Ten years later, Vero News reported that thousands from around Indian River County gathered at Sebastian's Riverview Park in March 2013 for the 21st annual wildlife festival celebrating the Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge.

The anniversary framing continued after the centennial. Vero News described the 22nd Annual Pelican Island Wildlife Festival, held March 15, 2014, at Riverview Park, as the 111th birthday celebration of the Pelican Island refuge, recalling that Roosevelt established Pelican Island as the first national wildlife refuge in 1903 and appointed Sebastian's own Paul Kroegel as its first manager. The Centennial Trail opened in 2003 remains the public's main land-based viewpoint for the island the festival honors.