Environmental Learning Center — Sebastian, Florida

The Environmental Learning Center, known locally as the ELC, is a nonprofit nature center on a 64-acre island campus in the Indian River Lagoon at the Wabasso Bridge, south of Sebastian in Indian River County. Vero News reported in April 2014 that the ELC is located north of Vero Beach off County Road 510 at the end of the Wabasso Bridge, and coverage in 2014 and 2016 describes the grounds as the 64-acre Wabasso Island campus.

The Environmental Learning Center combines indoor exhibits, outdoor trails and water trips on the Indian River Lagoon. According to the ELC, the campus holds 2,000 gallons of aquariums, a touch tank and live animal exhibits, miles of boardwalk nature trails, a gift shop and rotating art galleries, and serves as the departure point for pontoon tours and kayak and paddleboard rentals. Its stated mission is to educate, inspire and empower people to be active stewards of the environment around Wabasso Island and the wider lagoon.

The center grew out of the local Audubon chapter. The ELC history page states that the Environmental Learning Center was founded in 1988 by a group of environmentally conscious pioneers from the Pelican Island Audubon Society, who set out to preserve an unspoiled 64-acre Indian River Lagoon island and to lead educational programs there.

Public land and public schools were part of the arrangement from the start. In 1987, the ELC history records, the Indian River County Commission agreed to lease public land where the facility would be built, on the condition that the ELC raise funding to operate the center for public use. The Indian River County School Board agreed to send elementary school students to the ELC once it was operational, a relationship that still shapes the Wabasso Island program schedule.

Two of the founders held public office in Indian River County. The ELC lists George Bunnell (1924 to 2005), who served 14 years as a councilman during the formation of Indian River Shores and 12 years on the governing board of the Florida Inland Navigation District, and Maggy Bowman (1914 to 2006), a county commissioner and president of the Pelican Island Audubon Society. The Maggy Bowman Scholarship Fund, created after her death, helps pay for ELC programs and summer camps on Wabasso Island.

The indoor exhibit hall at the Environmental Learning Center is called the Living Lagoon. The ELC describes it as an air-conditioned space with a variety of aquariums, a large touch tank, an indoor active beehive and a full-size manatee skeleton. Its 2,000 gallons of aquaria feature native Indian River Lagoon species such as mangrove snapper, puffer and sheepshead, and the 145-gallon touch tank holds sea stars, horseshoe crabs and sea urchins.

Outdoors, the Wabasso Island campus is laid out with boardwalk and mulched trails, docks on the lagoon and a native plant sales area. On its visitor page, the ELC notes that the Indian River Lagoon around the campus is home to more than 4,300 different species of plants and animals, 36 of which are endangered or rare, and that the Environmental Protection Agency has named it an Estuary of National Significance. The ELC points to the Atala butterfly as one of the species found along its trails, and it streams two live osprey nest webcams from the campus.

The ELC sets campus rules of its own. The Environmental Learning Center describes its Wabasso Island grounds as a pet-free, smoke-free and vape-free campus, and states that single-use plastics, glitter, balloons and Styrofoam are not permitted. The Tidal Gallery in the Welcome Center rotates nature-themed artwork by local and regional artists about once a month.

Boat tours connect the Environmental Learning Center to the Sebastian area. The ELC boat tour page lists a Pelican Island Boat Tour that gives an up-close look at Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge, the first designated national wildlife refuge in the country, plus a sunset version of the same cruise. A seasonal Feathers and Fins tour runs to Sebastian Inlet, where the ELC states more than 370 species of birds are seen.

One trip starts in Sebastian itself. The seasonal St. Sebastian River Boat Tour departs from Dale Wimbrow Park Boat Ramp at 11805 Roseland Road in Sebastian, and the ELC notes it is the only trip to depart from Dale Wimbrow Park; as listed in October 2026, these tours are scheduled most Mondays from 10 a.m. to noon. A Spoil Island Splash tour, offered April through October, stops at a spoil island in the middle of the Indian River Lagoon. ELC boat trips last two hours and require at least 6 passengers.

Paddling is the other water option. The ELC rents kayaks, canoes and stand-up paddleboards from Wabasso Island and runs scheduled guided kayak tours, sunset and full moon tours, and private guided kayak tours starting at $140, as listed in October 2026. Vero News reported in April 2014 that ELC kayak and canoe excursions went around Wabasso Island, Pelican Island and up the St. Sebastian River.

School field trips are a core part of the Environmental Learning Center program. The ELC field trip page lists grade-level programs: Young Explorers for PreK to first grade at $15 per student, Splash for second and third grade at $20, and Lagoon Days for fourth through twelfth grade at $30, which rotates students through seine netting, a mangrove marsh walk and canoeing on the Indian River Lagoon. The ELC states that all environmental activities at the ELC meet Florida's Education Standards.

The scale of the school program was reported by Vero News in January 2010, which stated that ELC nature guides helped teach almost 4,000 first, third and fourth grade children in the Indian River School District each school year on the Wabasso Island campus. The same report described free guided tours of the uplands and wetlands of the nature preserve near the Wabasso causeway, and ELC-led hikes in the St. Sebastian River Preserve west of Sebastian.

As listed on the ELC website in October 2026, the Environmental Learning Center is open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., with check-in at the Welcome Center. The ELC address is 255 Live Oak Drive, Vero Beach, on Wabasso Island in Indian River County.

Admission at the Environmental Learning Center, as listed in October 2026, is $10 for adults 12 and up, $8 for seniors 65 and older and military, and $5 for children 2 to 11. Entry is free for ELC members, for children under age 2 and with a SNAP or WIC card. Boat and paddle trips on the Indian River Lagoon are booked separately and require advance reservations.