Indian River County, Florida Environment Guide

Three Indian River County environment guides go deeper than this hub: the conservation lands guide, the Indian River Lagoon programs guide and the Indian River Mosquito Control District guide.

Environmental work in Indian River County is not run by one office. The county has a Lagoon Division and a Stormwater Division, while mosquito control belongs to an independent taxing district with its own elected board (Indian River Mosquito Control District). Manatee and fish kill reports go to state numbers listed below.

The Indian River County GIS conservation layer returns 38 tract records with surveyed areas that add up to about 12,295 acres, from Oyster Bar Marsh on South Highway A1A in Vero Beach to the Carson Platt Estate on County Road 512 in Fellsmere.

One tract dominates the total. The Carson Platt Estate, listed at 11800 County Road 512 in Fellsmere, measures 5,425 surveyed acres in the county layer, which also carries the name St. Sebastian River State Park for it (Indian River County GIS). The Padgett Branch easements, addressed on State Road 60, cover about 1,588 acres, and the Sand Lakes Tract about 1,259 acres. Several of the larger entries, including the Padgett Branch, Sexton Ranch and Corrigan records, are listed in the layer as easements.

Addresses come from the county Conservation Lands directory, which lists each area with a map link (Indian River County Conservation Lands). The directory also lists two national wildlife refuges, Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge at 4055 Wildlife Way, Vero Beach, and Archie Carr National Wildlife Refuge, whose listed address is in Melbourne Beach. Hours, trail notes and the open preserves are in the Indian River County conservation lands guide.

Indian River County called a 2022 bond referendum on up to $50,000,000 in general obligation bonds for environmental lands, and in 2024 created a nine-member panel to review and rank nominated parcels.

The ballot question came from Resolution 2022-016, which the Board of County Commissioners approved without dissent on March 8, 2022: it asked voters to allow borrowing up to $50,000,000, maturing within 20 years from each issuance and repaid from property taxes, for land that helps the Indian River Lagoon, water supplies and wildlife habitat (Indian River County Environmental Lands Acquisition Panel). Two years later, on June 18, 2024, commissioners adopted Resolution 2024-029, which set up the Environmental Lands Acquisition Panel and approved the program guide it works from.

The panel has one appointee living in each of the five commission districts and four at-large members: two with natural resources experience, one from real estate or finance and one from planning or engineering. It meets on the third Tuesday of each month from 5:30 PM to 7:30 PM in Conference Room B1-501 of County Administration Building B, 1800 27th Street, Vero Beach, and its page carries a parcel nomination form and the minimum requirements for acquisition (same source). The panel receives and reviews the parcels nominated for purchase under the program guide.

Indian River County runs a Lagoon Division that carries out the Lagoon Management Plan adopted on September 26, 2023, which names 17 key factors affecting the health of the Indian River Lagoon.

The county describes the lagoon as a 156-mile bar-built estuary joined to the Atlantic by five inlets, and places Indian River County in its central stretch between the Sebastian Inlet and the Fort Pierce Inlet (Indian River County Lagoon Division). More than 4,300 species depend on it at some stage of life, 50 of them listed as endangered or threatened. The Indian River Lagoon National Estuary Program counts seven counties along the lagoon, from Volusia south to Palm Beach, with Indian River among them (Indian River Lagoon National Estuary Program).

The plan sets goals and objectives for each of its 17 factors and lists projects and best practices for county managers and residents; the county calls it a living document, with project updates once a year (Lagoon Management Plan). Recent work on the Lagoon Division page includes 2 derelict vessels removed in winter 2026, a pump out vessel program launching in 2026, a NOAA Transformational Habitat Restoration Grant to the estuary program for seagrass work in Indian River County, and 21 docks installed by the county Living Docks Program in partnership with FIT. The Indian River Lagoon programs guide covers seagrass, oyster and shoreline projects in detail.

Indian River County waters are covered by a county Manatee Protection Plan approved in 2004 and by FWC speed and manatee protection zones, while limits on long-term anchoring are still being set up with local municipalities.

Indian River County was named one of 13 key Florida counties required to write a Manatee Protection Plan, prepared with FWC and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and used by federal, state and local governments when they review permit applications (Indian River County Manatee Protection Plan). Manatees cannot survive water colder than 68 degrees, and most of the Atlantic population uses the lagoon to reach warm-water sites. A sick, injured, dead or tagged manatee is reported by calling 888-404-3922, or #FWC or *FWC from a cell phone.

The Lagoon Division is working with local municipalities to create anchoring limitation areas. Inside one, a vessel could anchor for no more than 45 consecutive days in a 6-month period; violations can bring citations and a 48-hour impoundment, and more than three violations in 12 months can get a vessel declared derelict or a public nuisance (Anchoring Limitation Areas). The county page says that if passed or approved, the areas must be clearly marked with signs and buoys, and that all work on them must follow sections 327.40 and 327.41, Florida Statutes.

Mosquito control is handled by the Indian River Mosquito Control District, an independent taxing district legislatively established in 1925 that provides mosquito control in the eastern two thirds of Indian River County.

The district is separate from county government. A three-member Board of Commissioners, elected at large for staggered four-year terms, sets policy and the budget, which comes mainly from property taxes, and appoints an administrator to run daily work (Indian River Mosquito Control District). Its facilities sit on 10 acres at 5655 41st Street, Vero Beach, first built in 1967. Since 2009 the district has held title to Hole-in-the-Wall Island, a 130-acre mangrove impoundment in the Indian River Lagoon at the east end of 69th Street.

The administrative office answers at 772-562-2393 and takes mail at 5655 41st Street, Vero Beach, FL 32967 (IRMCD contact page). The district site also publishes a District Map. Spray zones, the district map and the board are covered in the Indian River Mosquito Control District guide.

Flooding and other stormwater concerns in Indian River County go to the Road and Bridge Division at 772-226-3970, and fish kills or discolored water go to the FWC Fish Kill Hotline at 1-800-636-0511.

The county Stormwater Division works to cut pollution reaching the Indian River Lagoon from runoff and groundwater, carries out the county's federal NPDES Phase II permit goals, and enforces fertilizer, sediment and erosion rules; its own page asks residents not to call it about flooding and to call Road and Bridge instead (Indian River County Stormwater Division).

FWC asks for the location, the number and species of fish involved and a phone number or email with each report, and says about 2,000 people submit reports of fish kills and disease each year (FWC Fish Kill Hotline). Last verified: October 15, 2026, against the Indian River County, Indian River Mosquito Control District and FWC websites.