Bear Point Sanctuary in St. Lucie County, Florida

Bear Point Sanctuary is a St. Lucie County preserve at 2601 S Ocean Dr in Fort Pierce, on South Hutchinson Island, built around mangrove-lined mosquito impoundments on the Indian River Lagoon (county page).

The county calls it a 13-acre mangrove-lined impoundment and a stop on the Great Florida Birding Trail, managed by the Mosquito Control District, with a habitat it labels mangrove swamp mosquito impoundment (Bear Point Sanctuary page). The state birding trail listing, run under the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, describes the same Fort Pierce site as a wetlands park and mitigation bank on South Hutchinson Island with a series of mangrove-lined impoundments, and it places the viewing spots along Bear Point Cove (Great Florida Birding Trail site page).

The Impoundment Division page places the site within Mosquito Control District Impoundment 1, about 1.3 miles south of the Ft. Pierce Inlet, in Class III waters (Impoundment Division page).

The birding trail page lists parking but no restroom and no accessible parking (Great Florida Birding Trail site page). St. Lucie County lists the sanctuary among its coast and lagoon preserves, with sites such as Kings Island, Ocean Bay, Vitolo Family and Wildcat Cove (St. Lucie County preserves page).

Visitors on Hutchinson Island walk or bike an easy unpaved dike trail of about a mile to an observation platform with a raised viewing tower and a long fishing pier, and can launch a kayak at the front entrance (Bear Point Sanctuary page).

The address, contact, trail and amenity rows come from the Bear Point Sanctuary page; the fee row comes from the St. Lucie County preserves page, which describes the county's preserves as working wild places with sand, shell, grass and boardwalk trails rather than manicured parks. The sanctuary page's photo gallery is labeled with the observation platform, dike trail, kayak launch, impoundment pumps and mangrove crabs.

St. Lucie County lists brown pelican, osprey, white ibis, great blue heron and mourning dove as commonly seen at Bear Point on Hutchinson Island (county page).

For Bear Point Cove, the state birding trail adds wading birds such as wood stork, great egret and roseate spoonbill as common in the canals and lagoon (Great Florida Birding Trail site page).

The Great Florida Birding Trail page for the Hutchinson Island site says reddish egret and green heron occur, that both species of night herons keep to the mangroves, and that the spot can be good for wood-warblers in spring migration as they make landfall on the coast (Great Florida Birding Trail site page). It also says paddlers on the lagoon might encounter manatees and sea turtles, and that guided walks, boat tours and interpretive programs are offered, with a call to the listed number for details. The page links the site's eBird record for recent sightings rather than listing them.

The county's management helps explain the birdlife. The Mosquito Control District's Impoundment Division page says the impoundments are open to the tides most of the year and held flooded in summer, an approach it credits with benefits for fish and wading birds, and the Bear Point plan calls for at least one summer draw-down of 2 weeks partly to improve feeding for wading birds (Impoundment Division page).

St. Lucie County and the state birding trail post different acreage, pier length and hours for Bear Point in Fort Pierce, and the table sets each value beside its source (Great Florida Birding Trail site page).

The county columns quote the Bear Point Sanctuary page and the preserves page; the middle column quotes the Great Florida Birding Trail page; the last quotes the St. Lucie County mitigation bank page. Both the county and the birding trail list (772) 462-1692 and 2601 S. Ocean Dr. for the site.

St. Lucie County ties the name to history: its page says the Hutchinson Island site is remembered for the last recorded black bear hunt by local Native Americans (county page).

Public ownership came through the Mosquito Control District. The Impoundment Division page lists Bear Point Sanctuary among the lands that the district's land acquisition, mitigation and donation program helped acquire, with Preservation 2000 and federal grant programs paying for acquisition and restoration, among them Florida Communities Trust and Conservation and Recreation Lands (Impoundment Division page). The same St. Lucie County page says that public ownership of impoundments allows mosquito control without chemicals and more public access on the ocean beachfront and the lagoon.

Since 2003 the Bear Point Mitigation Bank, a 317-acre mangrove saltwater marsh near Fort Pierce, has operated along the lagoon; it holds permits from both the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, and its credit sales fund wetland upkeep for the lagoon (Bear Point Mitigation Bank page). Credit prices and the engineering of the impoundment are covered in the St. Lucie County Mosquito Control District guide on this site.

Bear Point is run by the St. Lucie County Mosquito Control District, based at 3150 Will Fee Road in Fort Pierce with the phone 772-462-1692, the same number the preserve page lists (Mosquito Control District page; Bear Point Sanctuary page).

The Mosquito Control District states its mission as controlling mosquitoes and other arthropods through Ecosystem Management and Integrated Mosquito Management, and it keeps a separate fogging information hotline at 772-462-1800 (Mosquito Control District page). Environmental Resources, which lists the sanctuary among the county's preserves and posts its office hours, is at 2300 Virginia Ave. in Fort Pierce, (772) 462-2526, and the county says voters approved a $20 million bond in 1994 to buy preserve land (St. Lucie County preserves page).

The St. Lucie County fishing pier and conservation lands guides on this site compare Bear Point with the other lagoon preserves. Last verified: October 22, 2026, for the Hutchinson Island sanctuary by rereading the Bear Point Sanctuary, Bear Point Mitigation Bank, Impoundment Division, Mosquito Control District and county preserves pages and the Great Florida Birding Trail listing.