Abundant Nature Awaits You at Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge
We’re so used to looking east and seeing the massive Vehicle Assembly Building or watching rockets blast off from one of the many launch pads, we sometimes forget that all this technology is surrounded by some of the most diverse wildlife to be found anywhere.
If you take the Max Brewer Causeway Bridge toward Playalinda Beach, you’ll soon find yourself in the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, which was “established in 1963 as on overlay of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s John F. Kennedy Space Center. According to the agreement with NASA, the lands and waters of the Kennedy Space Center are primarily to serve the space program and secondarily to serve as a wildlife refuge or park.”
With plenty of room for everyone and every type of creature, the 140,000 acres of the refuge covers an amazing range of habitats, from coastal dunes, to saltwater marshes, scrub, and pine flatwoods to hardwood hammocks. These provide homes for more than 1,500 species of plants and animals and 15 federally listed species.
Bird watchers love the refuge and travel from all over the world to observe the 350+ species of birds that have been identified in the area. The refuge is located on the Atlantic Flyway, a major bird migration corridor, and it’s a prime spot for these travelers to stop and have a rest.
A good starting point if you want to visit the refuge is the beautiful Visitor Center located at 1963 Refuge Headquarters Road. We wonder if that address is just a coincidence, since that was also the year the refuge was created.
The Visitor Center is open from 8 am until 4 pm Tuesday through Saturday and it’s well worth your time to check it out. Not only is there a knowledgeable staff on hand to answer your questions, the center itself is a mini-museum with exhibits, movies, programs and more.
The interactive exhibits are fun and will teach you and your kids about the animals that live on the refuge and what you can do to help protect them. There are also many examples of flora and fauna that you can get as close as you like to view every detail. Some of these (like the rattlesnake) would be less fun to meet at this distance in the wild.
Visit the gift shop for some unique souvenirs, and then head out back to walk the short (.25 mile) boardwalk and view the beautiful lake that stretches out behind the center. It’s a peaceful spot where you can watch insects buzzing and butterflies flitting between flowers.
Get a free map at the information desk and head out to explore on one of the many trails on the refuge. Here’s a list. The trails are usually flat and some include boardwalks, foot paths or mowed grass. But it’s Florida, folks, so take water, sunscreen and bug spray and summer afternoons often include a shower or two, so a raincoat may also be handy. Most of these trails are only about a mile, so you won’t be too far away from your vehicle.
Back on the road, if you keep going east, you will find several stops where you can get a great view of some of the launch pads at KSC. It’s yet another reminder that high tech and wildlife can coexist in the same great place.
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