Environmental Learning Center

Environmental Learning Center
Welcome to our 51-acre campus!
Take a hike and learn a little about this beautiful, diverse, and ecologically authentic place. It's diverse because it ranges from hammock (high ground) through salt marshes (sometimes underwater) to mangrove forest (with its feet in the water).
It's ecologically authentic because before we built our pavilions, we cut down all the exotic invasive trees like the Brazilian peppers and the Australian pines and replaced them with indigenous (native) species such as live oaks, cabbage or sabal palms, coontie, and wax myrtle.
It's beautiful because, well, just look around. But beauty is not just skin deep here. Our surroundings are especially beautiful because they provide a natural habitat for birds, fish, crustaceans, and mammals of many kinds. In fact the Indian River Lagoon, the big body of water that nearly surrounds us, is home to more than 4,000 different species, 36 of which are endangered or rare. It's such a diverse estuary (the most diverse in North America) that the Environmental Protection Agency has named it an Estuary of National Significance.
Try to be quiet during your walk about so that the birds and small animals will show themselves. With luck you'll see an otter. Or down by the canoe dock, a dolphin or manatee. Look up, look down; there's a lot to see. Follow the signs posted near the paths and boardwalk. You can't get lost and you can find out a lot.