Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge in Sebastian, Florida

Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge is the nation's first national wildlife refuge, a small island in the Indian River Lagoon near Sebastian plus more than 5,400 acres of surrounding protected waters and lands managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The Service describes the refuge as a little island in the Indian River Lagoon near the Atlantic coastal community of Sebastian, and states that Pelican Island, and its surrounding 5400+ acres of protected waters and lands, are known as the Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service). The refuge lands visitors use lie on the barrier island along the Historic Jungle Trail, east of the lagoon and directly across the water from the Sebastian mainland.

The refuge is managed as part of the Everglades Headwaters National Wildlife Refuge Complex, with an office at 4055 Wildlife Way in Vero Beach, and it carries out mosquito control in partnership with the Indian River Mosquito Control District. Local government holds a share as well: Indian River County owns, or shares ownership, on approximately 200 acres within the refuge, and the county works with the Service on managing those lands (Indian River County). The story of the 1903 executive order and the island's first warden is told on the Pelican Island 1903 history page; this page covers the refuge as it is used and managed today.

Visitors reach Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge by car from Sebastian over the Wabasso Causeway or Sebastian Inlet bridge to A1A, then along the Historic Jungle Trail, where the public use areas are open daily from 7:30 a.m. until sunset.

The Service's visitor page places the public use areas on the Historic Jungle Trail, in Indian River County off of A1A, 3.7 miles north of the Wabasso Beach Road (CR 510) or 3.3 miles south of Sebastian Inlet. Its driving directions start from I-95 at exit 156 for County Road 512, Sebastian Boulevard, then follow 90th Avenue and CR 510 east to A1A. The Centennial Trail address is 11455 Jungle Trail, Vero Beach. A restroom is available at the Birds Impoundment trailhead, and drinking water is not available on the refuge.

In all, the Service manages approximately seven miles of trails, including the three-quarter-mile Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Accessible Centennial Trail. In 2026 the refuge runs a free volunteer meet and greet at the Centennial Trailhead, 0.7 miles south of A1A on the west side of Jungle Trail Road, every Friday from 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. through Dec. 26, 2026, weather and volunteers permitting (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service). Indian River County lists volunteer-led guided tours by reservation on Wednesdays from November through March.

No: Indian River County lists going on Pelican Island proper, or inside the closed-area signs around it, as prohibited, so the island is seen from the Centennial Trail tower on Jungle Trail or from boats in the open lagoon.

The Centennial Trail ends at an 18-foot-tall observation tower among the mangrove and cabbage palm fringe of the lagoon, which the Service calls the closest land-based opportunity to view Pelican Island, and the tower includes two mounted spotting scopes for viewing the Pelican Island rookery (refuge trails page). The walk out is lined with more than 569 engraved planks, one for each refuge in the national system, ending with Pelican Island at the top of the platform.

On the water, the county lists boating, canoeing and kayaking in the Indian River Lagoon as allowed except in areas marked closed, along with sport fishing and recreational shellfish harvesting in open lagoon waters. The Service notes that kayaking and boating opportunities abound around Pelican Island proper and the spoil and mangrove islands inside the refuge boundary, and that fall through spring is the best season to see migratory white pelicans and nesting brown pelicans.

Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge supports more than 130 bird species plus federally protected green sea turtles, Florida manatees and wood storks in the Indian River Lagoon waters around Sebastian.

According to the Service, thousands of species inhabit the brackish Indian River Lagoon around the Sebastian refuge, including the federally protected green sea turtle, Florida manatee, and wood stork, as well as state-listed reddish egrets and tricolored herons. The uplands hold gopher tortoises, bobcats and snakes among mangroves, live oaks and gumbo limbo.

The seasons change what shows up along Jungle Trail. A June 29, 2026, Service feature says spring bursts with activity as at least 16 species, including brown pelicans, great egrets, roseate spoonbills, and wood storks, nest on Pelican Island proper, while winter brings American white pelicans and ducks such as red-breasted mergansers and blue-winged teal (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 2026). The same feature lists the southeastern beach mouse among threatened species the refuge protects.

Anglers use the lagoon edge of the Jungle Trail impoundments. On the Birds Impoundment loop, the Service notes bank fishing on the lagoon side, where blue crab, red drum, snook and tarpon are among the most popular catches; the county limits fishing to the lagoon side and bars fishing from structures or inside the salt marsh impoundments.

Pelican Island has eroded from 5.5 acres in 1903 to roughly 3 acres because of boat wakes, natural wave action and sea-level rise, which led the Service to rebuild its shoreline in 2001.

The Service's refuge history records that around 1943, the island began to shrink, eroding due to natural as well as human-induced wave action, and that by 2000 Pelican Island was less than half its original size. The response was a 165-foot oyster shell wave break, airlifted in by helicopter to avoid disturbing nesting birds, plus plantings of smooth cordgrass and mangroves along the shore to trap sediment. The St. Johns River Water Management District, the Florida Inland Navigation District and the Save America's Treasures program helped pay for it, with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers as a major partner.

The island is also the smallest wilderness in the country. The Pelican Island Wilderness, designated by Congress in 1970, initially covered 5.5 acres, and the Service now lists Pelican Island proper at roughly 3 acres due to years of boat-induced wave action and sea-level rise.

Pelican Island carries four layers of recognition, a 1963 National Historic Landmark listing, 1970 wilderness status, a 1993 Ramsar wetland designation and 2000 candidate Marine Protected Area status, and Jungle Trail visitors follow strict refuge rules.

The Service states that the refuge was designated a National Historic Landmark by the Secretary of the Interior in 1963, and that in 1993 the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands recognized Pelican Island as a Wetland of International Importance; in 2000 it was listed as a candidate Marine Protected Area for its protection of estuarine waters. Its expansion from a few islands to over 5,400 acres traces to a nine-year campaign that began in 1959, when Orchid Island citrus grower Joe Michael formed the Indian River Area Preservation League; the Joe Michael Memorial Trail has carried his name since May 22, 2010.

On the ground, the rules are posted by both agencies. The Service bars bicycles from the trails and allows no pets, only service animals, and asks visitors not to flush birds or use devices to lure them. Indian River County lists further prohibitions on the refuge: metal detectors and searching for artifacts, drones, fires, picnicking, camping, launching boats or kayaks from refuge waterbodies, and fishing inside the impoundments, lakes or ponds.