St. Sebastian River Preserve might offer more amenities

BY KIMBERLY C. MOORE
FLORIDA TODAY
Next meeting
A public meeting about the proposals for the Sebastian River Preserve State Park is scheduled for 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Fellsmere Community Center. An advisory committee meeting is scheduled for 9 a.m. Thursday at the Fellsmere Community Center.

FELLSMERE - It is a land where scrub jays and red-cockaded woodpeckers frolic and visitors can catch glimpses of manatees, wild turkeys and woodstorks.

The St. Sebastian River Preserve State Park straddles the Brevard-Indian River County line, with Interstate 95 and the C-54 Canal slashing a cross through its center.

And if state park service officials get their way, more visitors will exit I-95 at Fellsmere Road to see all that the park has to offer and all they hope to build during the next few years.

A draft 10-year plan for the park's use is circulating and a meeting is scheduled for Wednesday to solicit public opinion.

Florida Park Service Environmental Specialist Sam McGee dreams of a visitor's center and gift shop, along with more campsites and additional fishing platforms."There's not really going to be a change of land use," McGee said. "We're preservation and conservation. That's gonna remain the same.

"Proposed capital improvements to the 21,700-acre park are slated to cost $3.1 million and include:

A visitor's center and trailhead
Additional basic and group campsites
Fishing amenities
A manatee observation deck, picnic shelters, restrooms, parking lot and landscaping
A canoe and kayak launch
A new Fellsmere canal bridge
Support structures, including maintenance facility and equipment storage buildings.

There's also maintenance work that park rangers hope to finance, such as the removal of exotic plants and the planting of native flora. In addition, Native American archeological sites need to be preserved from animal and plant damage, erosion and vandalism.

The natural flow of water across the park's land and into the Sebastian River needs to be restored. Plans call for the roads and ditches built in the 1920s to be removed or filled in.

McGee stressed that all the plans in the draft document are proposals and that much could change based on public input.

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