"Kennedy Space Center is famous for rockets — but it's also one of the best wildlife refuges in Florida. The land around the launch pads is the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, home to alligators, manatees, bald eagles, and hundreds of other species. The space program accidentally created a wildlife paradise."
A Wildlife Refuge at the Spaceport
Kennedy Space Center and the adjacent Cape Canaveral Space Force Station occupy land that is also one of Florida's most important wildlife refuges. The Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, established in 1963, encompasses 140,000 acres of the Kennedy Space Center's buffer zone — land that was kept undeveloped as a safety buffer around the launch pads. This vast area of marshes, pine flatwoods, scrub, and lagoon shoreline became, almost by accident, one of the most important wildlife refuges in the southeastern United States. The refuge is home to over 1,500 species of plants and animals, including alligators, manatees, bald eagles, Florida scrub-jays, roseate spoonbills, bobcats, otters, and sea turtles. The irony is remarkable: the space program, a symbol of technology and human achievement, has protected one of the largest natural areas on Florida's east coast simply by keeping people away from the launch zone. The rockets and the wildlife coexist — sometimes uneasily, but mostly successfully.
