Conservation History

The preservation of Brevard County’s rich environment made conservation history in 1990 when voters supported a bond referendum to purchase environmentally endangered lands in the county. The referendum authorized issuance of limited tax bonds for a period of twenty years for the purpose of purchasing, protecting, and maintaining these lands, and for improvements for passive recreation and environmental education. Since its origin, the program has protected more that 13,000 acres of threatened habitat.

Initially under the direction of the Brevard County’s Office of Natural Resources, the Environmentally Endangered Lands (EEL) Program came under management of the Parks and Recreation Department in September 1997.

EEL is a willing-seller program that does not regulate or restrict private land rights. The program represents long-term protection of essential natural resources, open space, wildlife corridors and maintenance of natural ecosystem functions.

Each site acquired through the EEL Program will have a management plan that outlines both management goals and compatible recreational and educational activities.

Buying lands for conservation requires a commitment to continued land management. Land managers recreate natural cycles of fire and water, remove invasive non-native species, and replant native vegetation to restore degraded areas.

LAND ACQUISITION MANUAL
The Land Acquisition Manual (LAM) is a 86 page book (some artwork has been removed to reduce file size) available as a 1.25MB PDF document to download and view in Adobe Acrobat Reader.   For best results, right-click on the icon and "save target as", or otherwise save to a folder on your hard drive.  Open in Acrobat Reader off the internet.  Acrobat Reader is freely downloadable, click on the icon below to download it.  (Hard copies of the LAM are also available.  Requests may be made by  or by calling 321-255-4466.)

SANCTUARY MANAGEMENT MANUAL
The Sanctuary Management Manual (SMM) is a 60 page book (some artwork has been removed to reduce file size) available as a 909KB PDF document to download and view in Adobe Acrobat Reader.  For best results, right-click on the icon and "save target as", or otherwise save to a folder on your hard drive.  Open in Acrobat Reader off the internet.  Acrobat Reader is freely downloadable, click on the icon below to download it. (Hard copies of the SSM are also available.  Requests may be made by email or by calling 321-255-4466.)