Treasure Shores Park — Sebastian, Florida

Treasure Shores Park is an Indian River County beach park on the barrier island north of Wabasso. Indian River County gives its address as 11300 Highway A1A and places it three miles north of CR 510 (Wabasso Causeway), the bridge that carries traffic from the Sebastian and Wabasso side of the Indian River Lagoon to the ocean beaches. The county lists the park at 20.8 acres, open daily from 7am to sunset. Local reporting in Vero Beach 32963 in December 2021 placed it just north of Windsor.

The park sits inside the Archie Carr National Wildlife Refuge corridor. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service states that the refuge stretches across 20.5 miles of beach and shoreline habitat between Melbourne Beach and Wabasso Beach, and on its visitor page notes that the refuge provides public access to many beaches within Archie Carr National Wildlife Refuge including Golden Sands, Treasure Shores and more. For residents of Sebastian, Roseland and Wabasso, Treasure Shores is one of three county entrances to the Indian River County end of that refuge.

Indian River County describes Treasure Shores as a developed park rather than a bare beach access. Its amenity list includes 9 picnic tables, a playground, 74 parking spaces, 4 handicap spaces, drinking fountains, restrooms, outdoor showers and an ADA crossover. The county's description adds paved parking and picnic tables under large beautiful oak trees, and states that Treasure Shores Park offers ADA beach access, one of the features that sets it apart from smaller dune crossovers on the Wabasso end of the island.

The county page for the Archie Carr refuge lists the three refuge access parks side by side, which shows how Treasure Shores compares. Golden Sands Park to the south is the larger site, with 6 grills, 6 pavilions, 131 parking spaces and a guarded area, while Ambersand Beach Park offers an unpaved parking area and a dune crossover. Treasure Shores falls in between: paved, shaded and equipped with showers, but listed by Indian River County as an unguarded beach with no lifeguards on duty.

The county lists the normal beach activities allowed at Treasure Shores during park hours as fishing, surfing, scuba diving, sunbathing and picnicking. It also publishes a beach condition hotline, 772-226-3384, for the north county beaches.

Indian River County posts its park rules for Treasure Shores with the county ordinance behind each one. Pets are not permitted within any county park under County Ordinance 205.03.22, and alcohol is barred under County Ordinance 205.03.26. The list also prohibits open fires, camping, overnight parking, trespassing when the park is closed, equestrian activities, fireworks, remote controlled aircraft and golfing. Visitors are asked to stay off the dunes, defined as the vegetated areas west of the open beach, under County Ordinance 205.02.25.

The dune rule matters here because of what nests on this part of the Indian River County coast. The county gives the sea turtle nesting season as March 1 through October 31, asks beachgoers at Treasure Shores to fill in holes and remove trash so turtles can nest and hatch, and directs anyone who finds an injured or dead sea turtle to call the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission at 1-888-404-FWCC. The county page states that sea turtles deposit from 40,000 to 70,000 nests in Florida annually.

Treasure Shores lies in the stretch of coast that the Archie Carr refuge was created to protect. The Service states that the refuge, between Melbourne Beach and Wabasso Beach, was designated to protect what is the most significant area for loggerhead sea turtle nesting in the world, and the most significant area for green turtle nesting in North America. Indian River County's refuge page says Congress established the refuge in 1991 to provide a refuge for marine turtles, and that the county has sole or partial ownership of approximately 97 acres within it.

That nesting season shapes when work can happen at the park. In 2014, Vero News reported that state regulations and sea turtle nesting season meant dune work near Treasure Shores could not start until Nov. 1 at the earliest, and in 2021 Sebastian Daily reported that Indian River County timed beach construction to begin on November 1, 2021, following the end of sea turtle nesting season.

Treasure Shores is the northern anchor of a 6.6-mile run of Indian River County beach that the county has rebuilt several times. Vero News reported in May 2014 that the county had restored the stretch from John's Island north to Treasure Shores Park between 2010 and 2012, and that Hurricane Sandy then washed away some of the beach and did much damage to the high dune. A $5.4 million dune project followed, with up to $2.7 million coming from state Hurricane Sandy relief money.

Accounts of that 2014 project differ in the details. Vero News reported on October 31, 2014, that the county would close Treasure Shores Beach for the work, with 155,000 cubic yards to be placed by dump truck using sand mined west of Wabasso. Vero Beach 32963 reported in December 2014 that the dune work began on Nov. 10, using about 54,700 cubic yards from sand mines in west Vero Beach and 200,000 dune plants from Treasure Shores Beach Park south toward Turtle Trail Beach Park, at a cost split between the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and Indian River County.

The cycle repeated after later storms. Sebastian Daily reported that beach access at Treasure Shores would close beginning Friday, October 29, 2021, for Sector 3 Phase 1 work placing nearly 30,000 cubic yards of sand, and Vero Beach 32963 reported in December 2021 that Treasure Shores Beach Park re-opened after dune plantings. In December 2023, Vero News reported that the $13 million Sector 3 Hurricanes Ian and Nicole Dune Restoration Project began Nov. 27 at Treasure Shores Beach Park and would extend 6.6 miles south to the Turtle Trail Beach Access, adding 275,000 cubic yards of sand and more than 720,000 native dune plants.