WILDLIFE & CONSERVATION
Cedar Keys National Wildlife Refuge
Levy County · Gulf Coast
Thirteen islands off Cedar Key, set aside by President Herbert Hoover in 1929 to protect nesting birds.
ABOUT THIS PLACE
This is one of the largest colonial bird nesting grounds in Florida. White ibis, brown pelicans, egrets, herons and cormorants breed on the keys, around twenty thousand birds in an average year now, well down on the historic counts. Four of the islands are designated wilderness with restricted access: Snake, Bird, North and Seahorse Keys. Seahorse Key rises to fifty-two feet, the highest point on the west coast of Florida, and carries a lighthouse built in 1854 for the port at Cedar Key; it was used as a military prison during the Civil War and has housed a University of Florida marine laboratory since 1952. Salt marsh and mangrove make up close to half of the refuge. Access is by boat only and the shallow water limits that, most island interiors are closed, and Seahorse Key is shut entirely from the first of March to the thirtieth of June while the birds nest. Camping is not permitted on refuge ground
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