View table: timeline

Brevard County voters approved a half cent sales tax collected for 10 years, to restore the Indian River Lagoon through financing, planning, constructing, maintaining, and operating capital improvements and maintenance projects, and fund programs designed to improve water quality, fish, wildlife and marine habitat, and to remove muck and reduce pollution.

Canaveral National Seashore was created through congressional legislation on January 3, 1975 (by Public Law 93-626) to preserve and protect the natural, scenic, scientific, ecological, archeological, and historical values and resources within the national seashore, and to provide for public outdoor recreational use and enjoyment of those resources. The national seashore contains 24 miles of pristine, undeveloped beach along the Atlantic coast and Mosquito Lagoon.

The Crane Creek M-1 Canal Restoration Project will reduce the flow of nutrients and sediments to the lagoon by returning to the St. Johns River billions of gallons of freshwater flow each year. Major project components include an operable weir located near the natural coastal ridge, a stormwater pump station and a stormwater treatment area to ensure that nutrients and sediments are removed prior to the water’s return to the St. Johns River.

The district, Florida Department of Environmental Protection, state and local elected officials, and Indian River Lagoon protection advocates gathered to celebrate the completion of a two-year-long muck dredging project in the Eau Gallie River aimed at improving water quality. Attendees gathered at historic Ballard Park at the mouth of the Eau Gallie River to celebrate the removal of approximately 630,000 cubic yards of black muck from the waterway, which is a tributary of the Indian River Lagoon. The removal of such a significant amount of muck translates to the reduction of approximately 1,200 tons of nitrogen and 260 tons of total phosphorous, nutrients that contribute to algal blooms in waterways.

On March 2, 1900 the first meeting of the Florida Audubon Society was held in Maitland at the L.F. Dommerich estate. The list of early officers' included: N.Y. Governor and later U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt, Florida Governor W.D. Bloxham, American Museum of Natural History's Frank Chapman, Rollins College President G.M. Ward, Stetson University President J.F. Forbes, and the editors of the state's largest newspapers. A little later, the list grew to include President Grover Cleveland, Florida Governor W.S. Jennings, ornithologist Theodore S. Palmer, and Maria R. Audubon.

Working together, the state Audubon Societies successfully push for the passage of the Lacey Act, prohibiting the interstate trade of wildlife killed in violation of state laws. A regular winter visitor to Florida, Frank Chapman, ornithologist and curator of the American Museum of Natural History, organizes the first Christmas Bird Count.

The Florida "Net Ban" limits the use of nets for catching saltwater finfish, shellfish, or other marine animals by prohibiting the use of gill and other entangling nets in all Florida waters, and prohibiting the use of other nets larger than 500 square feet in mesh area in nearshore and inshore Florida waters. Provides definitions, administrative and criminal penalties, and exceptions for scientific and governmental purposes

The Florida Legislature enacted the Surface Water Improvement and Management Act (SWIM) (FL Chapter 62-43) to protect, restore and maintain Florida's highly threatened surface water bodies. Under this act, the state's five water management districts identified a list of priority water bodies within their authority and implement plans to improve them. The St. Johns River Water Management District recognized the Indian River as an area in need of special protection and restoration. The SWIM act was repealed on February 28, 2012.

On March 14, 1902, with the encouragement of Paul Kroegel, Frank Chapman and the Florida Audubon Society, President Theodore Roosevelt established Pelican Island in the Indian River Lagoon as the first federal bird reservation, in what would become the first wildlife refuge in the National Wildlife Refuge System.

The Crane Creek M-1 Canal Restoration Project will reduce the flow of nutrients and sediments to the lagoon by returning to the St. Johns River billions of gallons of freshwater flow each year. Major project components include an operable weir located near the natural coastal ridge, a stormwater pump station and a stormwater treatment area to ensure that nutrients and sediments are removed prior to the water’s return to the St. Johns River.

The district, Florida Department of Environmental Protection, state and local elected officials, and Indian River Lagoon protection advocates gathered to celebrate the completion of a two-year-long muck dredging project in the Eau Gallie River aimed at improving water quality. Attendees gathered at historic Ballard Park at the mouth of the Eau Gallie River to celebrate the removal of approximately 630,000 cubic yards of black muck from the waterway, which is a tributary of the Indian River Lagoon. The removal of such a significant amount of muck translates to the reduction of approximately 1,200 tons of nitrogen and 260 tons of total phosphorous, nutrients that contribute to algal blooms in waterways.