Supporting Documents (Data and Analysis) - Satellite Beach

which are restoring, or creating, native habitats. Its largest effort has been creating a passive
recreation park and nature preserve on Samsons Island Nature Park since 1990.
Development of Samson’s Island has concentrated on the removal of Brazilian pepper trees, an
exotic species, which had formed a monoculture over that portion of the island not covered with
Australian pine trees, another noxious exotic species proscribed by the State. Significant acreage of
the 52-acre island have been cleared of pepper trees and replanted with native species characteristic
of native habitats found in Brevard County including: saline wetland, fresh water pond, pine
flatwood, hardwood hammock, and oak scrub.
The City was awarded Florida's first annual award for Excellence in Coastal Zone Management for
its accomplishments on Samsons Island Nature Park. In a related, follow-on effort, volunteers
assisted by City Public Works employees have removed Brazilian pepper trees from approximately 4
acres of badly overgrown scrub on a 35-acre tract provided by the County to the City for
development as a recreation complex (the Satellite Beach Sports and Recreation Park) by the City.
This may encourage at least one family of scrub jays, a Federally-listed threatened species, to remain
on the property. The City is in possession of a Scrub Habitat Restoration Plan prepared by a
volunteer with assistance by local biologists, County staff, and the US Fish and Wildlife Service.
Plans are to remove peppers from the remaining scrub on the property, totaling approximately 3
acres. The City has, also, supported a volunteer who is removing pepper trees from properties in the
City whose owners request the service. To-date he has removed trees from 80 to 100 of an estimated
400 residences in the City harboring Brazilian pepper trees.
Wildlife and Marine Resources
The developed conditions within Satellite Beach leave only isolated areas of native vegetative cover
and wildlife habitat. The major habitat area is the Banana River, designated as an aquatic preserve
and an Outstanding Florida Water by the FDEP. Areas of natural vegetative cover serve as habitat to
various wildlife species, depending on the type of vegetation. The mangrove fringe around Samsons
and Lansing Islands is a unique vegetative community, and supports a highly diverse group of
finfish, shellfish, birds, and crustaceans, serving as habitat and/or nursery grounds for these species.
The twelve acres of wetland created as mitigation by a local developer on Samsons Island now
provide nutrient-rich, sheltered aquatic habitat serving as finfish nursery and feeding ground for a
diverse assemblage of birds and mammals. In addition, the City, in cooperation with a local
ecological consultant, has established Samsons Island Nature Park as the only gopher tortoise
relocation recipient site on the barrier island. It is now occupied by 42 relocated tortoises and 3
which had been living on the island when development began. The City also has erected five osprey
nesting platforms on Samsons Island Nature Park, from four of which young have been fledged.
Efforts now under way are creating habitat which is to be managed for use by gopher tortoises and
scrub jays. Finally, specialists associated with the St. Johns River Water Management District and
the County have identified Salicornia marsh associated with the mangrove fringe on Samsons Island
Nature Park as a habitat of high value which is disappearing from the County. The City is working
with faculty of Florida Technical University in Melbourne to promote graduate student research and
Coastal Management/Conservation Element
Data and Analysis 5-10