Region: Northern Palm Beach County
Size: 120 acres
Hours: Daily from sunrise to sunset
Location:
Located at the northeast corner of U.S. Highway 1 and Beach Road (County Road 707) in the Village of Tequesta. The entrance is on the north side of Beach Road, 1/4 mile east of U.S. Highway 1.
Public Use Facilities:
Site facilities include a parking area for seven cars and one bus, a bicycle rack, two kiosks with educational exhibits, an accessible nature trail leading to a boardwalk ending at a covered observation platform, and natural-surface hiking trails. Hiking, photography, wildlife viewing, and other passive recreation activities are allowed on the site. There are no restroom facilities or drinking water on the natural area.
Site Information:
The Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse Outstanding Natural Area (JILONA) is a 120-acre site that contains lands owned by the U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management (BLM); the U.S. Coast Guard; and the Town of Jupiter. Palm Beach County manages 78 acres of the natural area under a cooperative agreement with BLM, with the assistance of the Village of Tequesta. The managed area contains Florida scrub, maritime hammock, and mangrove swamp natural communities. Volunteers planted over 6,000 mangrove seedlings as part of a two-acre tidal wetland restoration project on the north side of Beach Road. The entire 120-acre site has received federal designation as an outstanding natural area through BLM's National Landscape Conservation Area Program. The part of the site on the south side of Beach Road lies within the Town of Jupiter and contains the historic 1860 Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse and Museum, the George Washington Tindall Pioneer House and the Town of Jupiter Lighthouse Park. The Loxahatchee River Historical Society provides scheduled guided tours of the lighthouse. The natural area is part of the Northeast Everglades Natural Area.
Plants:
Plant species observed on the site include swamp fern, American century plant, potbelly airplant, blue-eyed grass, partridge pea, and rustweed.
Wildlife:
Animal species observed on the site include eastern lubber grasshopper, common snook, coachwhip, brown thrasher, downy woodpecker, and Virginia opossum.
Links:
Coastal
