Southeast Intracoastal Waterway Park

Southeast Intracoastal Waterway Park contains 114 acres and is located between Crescent Beach and Marineland on Anastasia Island The park is situated between S.R. A1A and the Matanzas River in southeastern St. Johns County. S.R. A1A, which defines the eastern boundary of this site, was designated as a National Scenic Byway (known as A1A Scenic and Historic Coastal Highway) by the Federal Highway Administration (FWHA) in 2002. The Matanzas River defines the western boundary of this site and this river lies within the Guana Tolomato Matanzas (GTM) Natural Estuarine Research Reserve (NERR) boundary, the SJRWMD's Northern Coastal Basins (NCB) and Surface Water Improvement Management (SWIM) Program. This is one of the last few remaining areas in St. Johns County open to shellfish harvesting (classified as Class II water by DEP). This project is made up of two parcels Boyd tract (112 acres) and Roth tract (2 acres).

Environment

The vegetative communities on these parcels are relatively rare and rapidly diminishing coastal ecosystems and are pristine areas of the basin very rich in bi-diversity. The predominate natural communities on these parcels consist of coastal scrub oak (uplands) and bay, estuary and saltwater marsh (wetlands). The upland portions of these sites consist mainly of coastal scrub oak between "S.R. A1A and marshlands, which includes such species as sand live oak, myrtle oak, wax myrtle, saw palmetto, yaupon holly, saltbush and bracken fern. One of the vegetated natural communities, scrub oak", is listed as "imperiled" by the Florida Natural Areas Inventory (FNAI) because of its rarity or vulnerability due to extinction.

On the wetland portion of these sites the predominate vegetative natural communities consist of a mixture of saltwater marsh, bay and estuary vegetative natural communities. The bay and estuary vegetative natural communities are contiguous to the Matanzas River and are comprised of a mixture of smooth cordgrass and black needlerush. The Saltwater Marsh (wetlands) is located between the coastal scrub community and the bay-estuary vegetative natural communities and consists of smooth cordgrass, black needlerush, sea oxeye, black mangrove, glasswort and saltwort. The salt marsh and estuarine communities on these parcels are part of a much larger estuarine system in southern St. Johns County, identified by the St. Johns River Water Management District (SJRWMD) as providing critical habitat to a wide variety of wildlife, including listed species.

Species

Because the Matanzas River lies adjacent to these parcels, the river waters function as wildlife nurseries for the young of many species (including young turtles, oysters, etc.) and provide protection (shelter) needed for young species to mature. Listed species that may use the upland/wetland habitats for foraging or nesting on these parcels include the Anastasia beach mouse, Florida mouse, Florida manatee, eastern brown pelican, snowy egret, white ibis, American oystercatcher, black skimmer, Florida scrub jay, little blue heron, osprey, piping plover, tricolored heron, wood stork, southeastern American kestrel, eastern indigo snake and gopher tortoise.

Historical / Archaeological

There are at least ten known historical/archaeological sites on or within the vicinity of these parcels, with two known archaeological sites located on this site. These two known sites are currently enrolled on the Florida Master Site File listing. The Florida Master Site File has the two sites listed as, Sand Dollar Midden I (8SJ03131), which is an artifact scatter and shell midden dating from the first St. Johns Period, and Sand Dollar Midden II (8SJ03132), a coquina shell and shell midden dating between the Orange and St. Johns Period. U.S. Department of Interior, National Park Service's, Fort Matanzas National Monument is located just south of the project site. The National Park Service is interested in maintaining the rural character within the immediate surrounding areas so the National Monument visitors can visualize life as it once was for a Spanish soldier during the 18th Century.

Recreational Opportunities

Discover St. Johns County recreational opportunities with the St. Johns County Parks Location Map which includes State, County and City maintained parks and in our Parks and Recreation section.