St. Lucie County Environment

The St. Lucie County conservation lands guide answers where to hike, paddle or fish on the county's preserves, while this section page covers the county agencies behind beaches, lagoon water quality, mosquito control and environmental education (St. Lucie County preserves program).

The Ocean Bay Preserve guide covers the county preserve with short trails to an undeveloped beach and wormrock reef just offshore, and the St. Lucie County parks guide covers beach access (county preserves page). Environmental Resources lists its office at 2300 Virginia Ave. in Fort Pierce, with office hours Monday to Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and the phone (772) 462-2526.

The Environmental Resources Department runs the St. Lucie County preserves, 28 of them across upward of 11,000 acres, which are free and open from dawn to dusk (Preserves of St. Lucie County).

The program began with a $20 million bond that St. Lucie County voters approved in 1994, and the county says staff have since more than tripled that money through local, state and federal partnerships (county preserves page, history). The same department lists Environmental Regulations and Permits in its menu, covering invasive plant species, vegetation removal permits, tree mitigation, dune vegetation permits, wetlands, a Manatee Protection Plan and sea turtle rules (Environmental Resources menu on a county preserve page).

Its stated mission is to preserve, protect and enhance St. Lucie County's environmental resources through land management, regulation, public education and outreach, and the county describes the preserves as the place where most people meet that work (county preserves page, mission). The full preserve list, closures and visitor rules are in the conservation lands guide.

St. Lucie County's mosquito district controls mosquitoes and other arthropods using what it calls Ecosystem Management and Integrated Mosquito Management, from an office at 3150 Will Fee Road in Fort Pierce, phone 772-462-1692 (St. Lucie County Mosquito Control District).

Spraying questions go to the district's fogging information hotline at 772-462-1800, and the district posts an interactive fogging map of the areas scheduled for fogging (Mosquito Control District page). The district page also links a draft general management plan for Blind Creek Ocean to River Park.

Land management is part of the district's role on Hutchinson Island. Bear Point Sanctuary, a 13-acre mangrove impoundment at 2601 S. Ocean Drive, is managed by the Mosquito Control District and is a stop for birders on the statewide birding trail, and the related Bear Point Mitigation Bank sells environmental credits that the county ties to better lagoon water (Bear Point Sanctuary page).

Sea turtle nesting season on St. Lucie County beaches runs March 1 through Nov. 15 (St. Lucie County Sea Turtle Information).

During the season St. Lucie County asks that exterior light sources be modified or turned off so illumination is not directly visible from the beach between sunset and sunrise (Sea Turtle Information page).

The St. Lucie County page notes that in the last season the first recorded nest was laid in late February, ahead of the official March 1 start (Sea Turtle Information page). It says beach furniture should not be left on the beach overnight, that pits, holes and sandcastles can entrap hatchlings, and that regular flashlights are discouraged in nesting season while red or infrared light is fine, and it lists 911 or the state wildlife hotline at 1-888-404-FWCC for reports of nest poaching or harassment. For nesting numbers, the county points to its sea turtle nesting dashboard. Sick, injured, entangled or dead turtles go to the state Wildlife Alert Hotline at 888-404-FWCC (3922), and the county points to the state wildlife agency's sea turtle lighting page for information about sea turtles and lights.

The county's Water Quality Division turned 16 acres beside Taylor Creek into the Sheraton Plaza Stormwater Treatment Area, built to catch and treat runoff before it reaches the Indian River Lagoon (St. Lucie County news release).

The Sheraton Plaza treatment area uses several cells to catch and treat runoff from the Sheraton Plaza and Harmony Heights neighborhoods, and it sits 1.5 miles west of the Taylor Creek spillway, which discharges into the Indian River Lagoon (county release on the Sheraton Plaza STA). The project also replaced the existing outfall pipes with a new 72-inch pipe at the request of the South Florida Water Management District.

Design was funded through a partnership with the Indian River Lagoon National Estuary Program and construction through the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, which provided $2,228,626; the county reports the job came in under budget with $172,448.90 left over (county release, funding). The release names it among multiple St. Lucie County projects paid for with $19 million in federal funding, and it describes the lagoon as 156 miles long with an estimated 4,400 plant and animal species. The county explains that dry detention areas and wetland cells slow runoff so plants can take up phosphorus and nitrogen before the water reaches the estuary, and that the area also adds stormwater capacity and passive recreation space near the Sheraton Plaza and Harmony Heights neighborhoods.

Environmental education centers on the Oxbow Eco-Center, a free county site covering 225 acres beside the river's North Fork in Port St. Lucie (Oxbow Eco-Center page).

The Oxbow building, whose address is 5400 NE St. James Drive, is staffed Tuesday through Friday afternoons from noon and on Saturdays from 10 a.m., closing at 4 p.m. each of those days, and its trails stay open sunrise to sunset; call (772) 785-5833 (Oxbow Eco-Center hours). The center's page counts 28 preserves and 60+ miles of trails across the St. Lucie County system.

From October through June, county naturalists take groups out on the preserves on foot and by kayak; the walking and family programs cost nothing, a kayak program costs $20 per person, and reservations are required for all of them (county preserves page, guided programs). Last verified: October 22, 2026, against the St. Lucie County preserves, Bear Point Sanctuary, Mosquito Control District, Sea Turtle Information and Oxbow Eco-Center pages and the county's Sheraton Plaza stormwater release.