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Palm Beach County staff outline conservation, burn and visitor plans for Juno Dunes Natural Area
Summary
County staff presented the ecological importance, management history and visitor amenities at Juno Dunes, noting rare scrub habitat, documented species counts, funding sources and limited prescribed-fire windows that make mechanical vegetation reduction a core tool.
Melissa Tolbert, an environmental program supervisor with Palm Beach County Environmental Resources Management, told the board the county acquired environmentally sensitive lands through voter-approved bond referendums in 1991 and 1999 and currently manages roughly 31,000 acres countywide. "So Juno Dunes is 1 of 37 natural areas that we manage, and it is also the largest tract of Atlantic Coastal Ridge" Tolbert said, adding that acquisitions for this program totaled around $42,000,000.
Tolbert said Juno Dunes is unique because the county-owned property extends from the Atlantic Ocean to the Intracoastal Waterway and holds a diversity of habitats dominated by scrub, a rare ecosystem with fewer than 2% of the county's original scrub remaining. She cited the program's species inventory, saying the county has documented "667 plant species and 324 animal species to date," and pointed to a management plan that is updated every 10 years and available for public review.
TJ Wilkerson, the site manager and senior environmental analyst at Juno Dunes, described on-the-ground management: the site is divided into 14 management units across about 569 acres, invasive-species treatment began in 1997, and mechanical vegetation reduction is used where narrow weather windows make prescribed burning impractical. "A total of 234 acres have been burned at Juneau [Juno] Dunes since 2000," Wilkerson said, noting the last controlled burn occurred in 2021 and staff hope to burn a central area this year if weather permits. He also detailed public amenities (about four miles of trails, an observation tower, ADA access and water access), volunteer cleanups and county partnerships on restoration projects.
Staff emphasized restoration and monitoring work, protection layers tied to grant funding and leases (including a state lease through 2047 for a portion of the site), and enforcement contacts for trespass, vandalism or emergencies. The presentation closed by directing interested residents to the county's management plan and permitting process for research.
