Of Missiles and Mangroves: Part I (Scrub Jays and Historic Lighthouse)

Yesterday, I was privileged to tour Cape Canaveral Air Force Station with Don George, a biologist with the 45th Space Wing and one of the environmental engineers charged with protecting endangered species on the base and planning mitigation activities when an area of scrub is taken for the construction of new launch facilities. George only leads two tours per year, both of which occur during the Space Coast Birding Festival, sponsored by the Brevard Nature Alliance.

Our first stop was on a small rise a bit north of the trident basin, where George called up a family of endangered Florida scrub jays, who responded to his pishing and a handful of acorns.

As we watched the birds picking up and then burying each nut, we learned that there are 144 families of scrub jays living in this roughly 15000 acre area. One of George's missions is to keep the habitat in a condition that will support the scrub jay, which means periodic burnings, sometimes within feet of buried stores of solid rocket fuel.

Our next stop was at the Cape Canaveral Lighthouse, which was built in 1848, then rebuilt in 1868 so that it could be seen for 16 miles, rather than the original 10 miles. At that time, the port was an offshore area that was bounded on the east by a reef, not the deep water port that visitors see today. In 1894 the lighthouse was relocated about a mile and a half inland because of beach erosion. (1/2 mile of that distance has disappeared into the ocean since then.) In 1954 the light was automated, in 1993, the fresnel lens was removed and a modern optic was installed, and in 2000, ownership of the lighthouse was transferred from the Coast Guard to the U.S. Air Force (in fact, the Canaveral Light is the only lighthouse owned by the air force.)

The light went dark from 2004 until 2007, as the building was being restored. The keeper's house no longer exists, but the brick oil shed is still adjacent to the building. This is a photo of the iconic black and white light as it stands, today.