Fellsmere Grade and the Conservation Lands West of Fellsmere

Fellsmere Grade is a lime rock road running west from SR 507 to Lateral M on the Upper St. Johns River Basin Project, giving access to the public marshes at the headwaters of the St. Johns River in Indian River County.

Indian River County has designated five corridors as scenic and historic roads, and Fellsmere Grade is one of them, from SR 507 west to Lateral M, the point at Levee 76 and structure S-96-B on the St. Johns River Water Management District project (Indian River County 2030 Comprehensive Plan). The other four designated roads are Jungle Trail, Quay Dock Road, Gifford Dock Road and Old Winter Beach Road.

FWC gives the plainest directions: Headwaters Lake sits off Fellsmere Grade Road less than 10 miles west of Fellsmere, reached from I-95 (FWC Fellsmere Reservoir page). Asked why the road is not paved, the same page answers that Fellsmere Grade was recently upgraded and recapped with lime rock and is maintained weekly by SJRWMD.

West of Fellsmere, SJRWMD lists two public entry points: the Headwaters Boat Ramp for motorized watercraft on the Fellsmere Water Management Area, and the Fellsmere Grade Recreation Area at the Stick Marsh parking lot for non-motorized access (SJRWMD). SJRWMD also lists the Fellsmere Grade Recreation Area as an access point for the Blue Cypress and Three Forks conservation areas.

Fellsmere Grade leads directly to the Fellsmere Water Management Area and the Stick Marsh, and the Stick Marsh's Fellsmere Grade Recreation Area is also an access point for the Blue Cypress and Three Forks conservation areas of the Upper St. Johns River basin.

The property where this 10,000-acre reservoir now sits was bought for stormwater storage and treatment, water supply and fewer harmful freshwater discharges to the Indian River Lagoon (SJRWMD Fellsmere Water Management Area). Motorboats launch at the Headwaters Boat Ramp, while non-motorized access to the L-75 levee and a non-motorized watercraft launch are at the Fellsmere Grade Recreation Area at the Stick Marsh lot. FWC describes the reservoir, which it also calls Headwaters Lake or Lake Egan, as a 10,000-acre manmade lake, while SJRWMD treats Headwaters Lake and Egan Lake as separate water bodies inside the area, joined by a navigation channel (FWC Fellsmere Reservoir page).

The Stick Marsh is the adjacent impoundment. FWC describes the Farm 13/Stick Marsh as a 6,500-acre impoundment in northwest Indian River County with water 4 to 8 feet deep, and its facilities include a double lane concrete boat ramp, air boat launch site, restroom and paved parking lot, with no gas, food or bait on site (FWC Farm 13/Stick Marsh page).

Blue Cypress Conservation Area is described by SJRWMD as one of the most undisturbed areas in the headwaters of the St. Johns River and the largest remnant marsh of its type in the region (SJRWMD Blue Cypress Conservation Area). In Three Forks Conservation Area, the first discernible channels of the St. Johns River arise within the marsh south of Lake Hell 'n' Blazes, and SJRWMD counts nearly 70 miles of trail there, with access from the Fellsmere Grade Recreation Area among four entry points (SJRWMD Three Forks Conservation Area).

Fort Drum Marsh Conservation Area is the southern bookend of the headwaters, reached from State Road 60 rather than the Grade. SJRWMD places it about 10 miles east of Yeehaw Junction, with a boardwalk through a hardwood swamp to Hog Island and about 5 miles of trails (SJRWMD Fort Drum Marsh Conservation Area).

The Fellsmere Water Management Area opens one hour before sunrise and closes one hour after sunset, bans airboats and prohibits parking on the Grade outside designated spots.

SJRWMD states that daily hours of operation begin one hour before sunrise until one hour after sunset and warns visitors to be prepared for darkness because there is no roadway lighting (SJRWMD). Recreational and commercial use of airboats is prohibited on the Fellsmere Water Management Area, boats may not exceed 25 mph, and designated canal sections are idle speed, no wake.

Parking outside of designated spots, including on the Fellsmere Grade, is prohibited, and public access is barred on the eastern levee, the southern interior levee and the privately owned island between Egan and Headwaters lakes (SJRWMD Fellsmere Water Management Area). Hunting inside the reservoir area is allowed only within the Fellsmere Area 1 public small game hunting area, which FWC says is mapped in its hunt brochure and on the Headwaters Lake ramp kiosk (FWC Fellsmere Reservoir page).

Fishing rules differ by water body. Anglers are reminded that Stick Marsh/Farm13 is catch-and-release for largemouth bass (FWC), and FWC lists catch and release of all largemouth bass plus circle hooks for natural bait longer than three inches on Headwaters Lake (FWC).

T.M. Goodwin, near Fellsmere in southern Brevard County (FWC T.M. Goodwin), has its own FWC rules. FWC notes that the area is closed to other visitors when hunts are in progress, restrooms are not available, dogs must be kept under physical restraint and no daily use permit is currently required (FWC T.M. Goodwin visitor page). Fort Drum is the exception on permits: vehicles going beyond Lake Cara need an annual day use permit requested at least one business day ahead, and SJRWMD's Bureau of Land Resources answers at (386) 329-4401 (SJRWMD Fort Drum page).

Last verified: October 15, 2026, on the St. Johns River Water Management District and FWC websites.

The marshes west of Fellsmere were drained for farming from the early 1900s and later acquired for the Upper St. Johns River Basin Project, a joint SJRWMD and Army Corps flood control project that also reduces freshwater discharges to the Indian River Lagoon.

The National Register documentation for Fellsmere records that Fellsmere Farms, organized in 1910, was one of the largest privately funded reclamation projects in Florida, and that permanent settlement in Fellsmere began in 1911 (National Park Service). About 1912 a group of Dutch investors established the colony of Broadmoor several miles west of Fellsmere; assailed by periodic flooding, its settlers abandoned their homes and fields in 1915.

FWC writes that since the early 1900s most floodplain marshes of the Upper St. Johns River Basin were diked and drained for urbanization and agriculture, primarily citrus, sod or cattle production, which destroyed wetlands and created serious water quality problems; about 2,000 head of cattle once grazed the land that is now T.M. Goodwin (FWC T.M. Goodwin history). SJRWMD acquired that farmland beginning in the 1980s using state funds and leased it to FWC to develop Florida's first and only waterfowl management area. The Broadmoor Marsh Unit, 2,400 acres historically known as the Broadmoor Marsh, was added in 2002.

The federal side of the work began earlier. Structure S-96, a 58-foot-wide concrete flood control structure between the Stick Marsh and the C-54 Canal, is one of the earliest components of the federal Upper St. Johns River Basin Project and was built by the Corps in 1971 (SJRWMD news release, December 2021). On rare occasions S-96 sends upper basin water into the Indian River Lagoon through the C-54 Canal for flood protection.

The finished system is large. In its October 2016 release after Hurricane Matthew, SJRWMD said that under maximum storm conditions the project is designed to hold 500,000 acre-feet of water, and that the nearly 200,000-acre project has revitalized the river's flow by reclaiming drained marshlands (SJRWMD news release, October 2016).

Under the Florida Wildlife Corridor Act, wildlife management areas count as conserved lands, and the corridor is the conserved lands and opportunity areas DEP defines as priority one, two and three of the Florida Ecological Greenways Network.

Section 259.1055, Florida Statutes, finds that the Florida wildlife corridor is a defined area of more than 18 million acres of land, 10 million of which are conservation lands (Florida Statutes, s. 259.1055). The statute defines conserved lands as federal, state or local lands owned or managed for conservation, naming wildlife management areas, wildlife refuges and privately owned land under a conservation easement among them.

The statute's list names wildlife management areas, and SJRWMD says Fort Drum Marsh Conservation Area is managed as a Wildlife Management Area through FWC. Whether a given parcel along Fellsmere Grade falls inside the mapped corridor depends on the Florida Ecological Greenways Network priority categories defined by the Department of Environmental Protection in that periodically updated model, so the map rather than this page is the authority for any single tract.

The statewide law, its Florida Forever funding and the Florida panther connection are covered in the Digital Towns Florida Wildlife Corridor guide in the environment section, which this page does not repeat.

Before a trip west of Fellsmere, check the SJRWMD closures page, the FWC hunt dates for the Goodwin area and Fellsmere Area 1, and the hour of sunrise, since the Grade and the Headwaters ramp have no lights.

Closures do happen. In December 2021 SJRWMD closed the Stick Marsh airboat ramp during construction at Structure S-96 and pointed boaters to the concrete Stick Marsh ramp or the air boat ramp at the 512 Rec Pad instead, telling visitors to watch its announcements page for closures on every District property (SJRWMD).

FWC counts parking for around 44 trailers and restroom facilities at the Headwaters Lake ramp, with more parking 2 miles away at the Stick Marsh/Farm 13 boat ramp (FWC Fellsmere Reservoir page). The same FWC page says the initial boat ramp design did not include lighting and that lights may be considered as funding allows, and FWC adds that no access is allowed until one hour before sunrise.

The FWC fishing pages carry no publication date. The Farm 13 page still calls the Headwaters Lake ramp recently opened (FWC Farm 13/Stick Marsh page), and its forecast section names a private bait shop for daily lake conditions, so the current Florida regulations page and the SJRWMD property page are the better check on rules the week of a trip.

The fishing draw is real: after Headwaters Lake was flooded, nearly 1,000,000 Florida bass were stocked along with bluegill, redear sunfish and crappie, according to FWC (FWC). Bird watchers will find snail kite foraging and nesting habitat on the eastern side of the Fellsmere Water Management Area, along with wood storks, ospreys and bald eagles (SJRWMD).