U.S. Forest Service Conducting Controlled Burns Sunday at Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge

By  //  March 25, 2018

U.S. Forest Service manages wildland fire on National Forests and Grasslands

BREVARD COUNTY • MERRITT ISLAND, FLORIDA – The U.S. Forest Service is conducting controlled burns Sunday at the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge.

The Forest Service has been managing wildland fire on National Forests and Grasslands for more than 100 years. The Forest Service works closely with other federal, tribal, state and local partners.

The refuge, located on North Merritt Island, traces its beginnings to the development of the nation’s Space Program. In 1962, NASA acquired 140,000 acres of land, water, and marshes adjacent to Cape Canaveral to establish the John F. Kennedy Space Center.

NASA built a launch complex and other space-related facilities, but the development of most of the area was not necessary. In 1963 the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service signed an agreement to establish the refuge and in 1975 a second agreement established Canaveral National Seashore.

Today, the Department of Interior manages most of the unused portions of the Kennedy Space Center as a National Wildlife Refuge and National Seashore.

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