Coastal Hammock in Miami: Where It Survives and How to Visit

On Virginia Key, the City of Miami counts approximately sixteen acres of maritime hammock, which its park page lists among the island's communities as a coastal maritime hammock, at Virginia Key Beach North Point Park (City of Miami).

The city uses the name maritime hammock for this forest and calls it one of the rarest and most endangered plant communities in Miami-Dade County, and the reason it gives is coastal development (City of Miami). Virginia Key itself is a 1,000-acre barrier island in Biscayne Bay, set midway between the eastern shore of the City of Miami and the Village of Key Biscayne and reached by the Rickenbacker Causeway (City of Miami Virginia Key Master Plan).

The hammock is a small piece of a larger mosaic. On the same island the city lists seagrass beds, intertidal sand and mud flats, mangrove and herbaceous wetlands and beach dune communities, with more than 300 acres in mangroves and 18 acres in beach and dune, so the hammock is small next to the mangroves (Virginia Key Beach North Point Park). Ownership is split: the city page says the City of Miami and Miami-Dade County own the island jointly.

The mainland hammock parks are covered in the Miami native plants guide; the Virginia Key stand grows on a barrier island bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and Biscayne Bay to the west (City of Miami). The city park page tags North Point as a Natural Forest Community, the label Miami-Dade County gives to the rare upland plant communities it protects (Miami-Dade County).

On the northern and eastern North Point, the City of Miami lists sea oats, inkberry, railroad vine and burrowing four o'clock as typical dune vegetation in the beach dune communities of the island (City of Miami).

Burrowing four o'clock is the one to know by name. The city notes it is listed as a state endangered species by the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services under Chapter 5B-40, F.A.C. (Virginia Key Beach North Point Park). The city also says the North Point beach and dune community holds several threatened and endangered plant species and makes up a significant share of that community type in Miami-Dade County.

Why is the dune strip so thin on Virginia Key? The city describes the North Point dunes as small to non-existent and the beach as relatively narrow, and it gives two causes: human disturbance and low surf energy. A sandbar that runs from Fisher Island across Norris Cut and Bear Cut to Key Biscayne absorbs ocean surf and acts as a natural wave break for the island (City of Miami). The same page records significant beach erosion on the eastern portion of North Point.

Offshore of North Point, the city describes dense seagrass beds made up mainly of turtle grass, manatee grass and shoal grass, and the northern beach supports a significant amount of sea turtle nesting (City of Miami). Across Bear Cut on Key Biscayne, Miami-Dade County names beach peanut, Biscayne prickly ash and coontie among the rare plants of Crandon Park (Miami-Dade County Parks).

Virginia Key Beach North Point Park, at 3801 Rickenbacker Causeway in Miami, opens at 7 a.m. year round and charges $8.00 per automobile, with no re-entry and no refunds (City of Miami).

Closing time changes with the season. From November to March the park closes at 5:30 p.m., the main gate shuts 30 minutes earlier, and visitors are asked to leave by 5:00 p.m.; from April to October it closes at 7:00 p.m., with the gate shutting 60 minutes before (City of Miami). Buses pay $25.00 and an annual pass costs $150.00. The city sells annual passes at the toll booth Monday to Friday and asks buyers to bring a driver's license and registration. No overnight parking is allowed on North Point.

A practical point for anyone who plans a hammock walk on Virginia Key: only service animals are allowed inside the park, and all animals must be leashed (City of Miami Parks). The North Point Trails add over 10 miles of mountain bike trails, developed since 2010 with City of Miami resources and Virginia Key Bicycle Club volunteers to International Mountain Biking Association standards, Questions go to City of Miami Parks Administration at 305-416-1300.

Across Bear Cut from Virginia Key, the Bear Cut Preserve in Crandon Park on Key Biscayne offers a public coastal hammock walk, with naturalist-guided hammock hikes run by Miami-Dade County Parks (Miami-Dade County Parks).

The county calls the Bear Cut Preserve a designated natural Environment Study Area, and its naturalists lead visitors through the hammock, ocean and beach communities of Key Biscayne (Crandon Park). The Crandon Park Visitor and Nature Center at 6767 Crandon Boulevard is open 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Sunday, and takes calls at 305-361-6767. Parking at Crandon Park is $7 plus tax Monday through Thursday and $10 plus tax Friday through Sunday, and pets are prohibited except service animals.

The state wildlife trail listing adds the numbers. The Great Florida Birding and Wildlife Trail gives the Bear Cut Preserve a size of 125 acres, lists Miami-Dade County as manager, and shows hours of 8 a.m. to sunset daily (Florida Birding Trail). It places the preserve at the northeast end of Crandon Park, behind the Crandon Visitors and Nature Center, and notes White-crowned Pigeons and migrants such as Cape May Warblers on the coastal hammock trails.

Two official hour listings apply here and they do not match: the county gives the Nature Center 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., and the birding trail gives the preserve 8 a.m. to sunset. For a Key Biscayne hammock walk, the Nature Center line at 305-361-6767 is where the day's hours can be confirmed before the drive over the Rickenbacker Causeway (Miami-Dade County).

Volunteer planting led by the Frost Museum of Science and a National Fish and Wildlife Foundation grant support coastal habitat restoration at Virginia Key North Point and the Crandon Park dunes on Key Biscayne (Frost Science MUVE, NFWF grant profile).

The museum reports its own program results. The museum says thousands of volunteers in its Museum Volunteers for the Environment program, known as MUVE, have helped restore native environments across Miami-Dade County since 2007, and on Virginia Key the museum says volunteers planted nearly 35,000 plants on the beach, including dune-stabilizing sea oats, and later over 3,000 native trees in the adjacent hardwood hammock (Frost Science MUVE). Those are the museum's figures for its own work, not a county inventory.

The NFWF grant record gives the money. NFWF project 1301.21.071392, titled Restoring, Enhancing, and Maintaining Coastal Habitats in South Florida's Coastal Watershed, lists the Phillip and Patricia Frost Museum of Science as the organization, the Five Star and Nature Restoration Trust as the program, an award of $34,195.91, and three locations: Virginia Key North Point, Crandon Park dunes and Haulover Park beach dunes (National Fish and Wildlife Foundation). The grant profile page shows no project dates, so the year of the work cannot be confirmed from it.

What is changing on the ground is the shoreline. The City of Miami still describes significant beach erosion along the eastern portion of North Point as of October 18, 2026 (City of Miami). The city's Virginia Key master plan sets policies for protecting and enhancing the island's natural resources (Virginia Key Master Plan).

Clearing or damaging plants inside a designated Natural Forest Community takes a Miami-Dade County NFC removal permit, and the city's listing for Virginia Key Beach North Point Park carries the Natural Forest Community tag (Miami-Dade Environmental Resources Management, City of Miami).

Trees, shrubs and groundcover plants all fall under the rule, and the county states that the permits exist so impacts to these forests are minimized and the remaining areas are preserved and managed (Miami-Dade County). For a North Point or other NFC question, the county's Environmental Resources Management department lists 701 NW 1st Court, Miami, and 305-372-6789.

State listing adds a second layer on the Virginia Key dunes, where burrowing four o'clock is state endangered under Chapter 5B-40, F.A.C. (City of Miami). Last verified: October 18, 2026, against the Virginia Key Beach North Point Park and Virginia Key Master Plan pages of the City of Miami, the Crandon Park and Natural Forest Communities pages of Miami-Dade County, the Great Florida Birding and Wildlife Trail listing, the Frost Science MUVE page and the NFWF grant library.