MELBOURNE, Fla.--The Saturday after Thanksgiving, a mild day, proved to be the perfect time to be outdoors.
Tiles by small visitors at the entrance to the park
I headed 4 miles across town to Erna Nixon Park, a 54-acre tract of land, a haven in an area of thoroughfares, a mall, residential developments and high-tech companies.
Other residents had the same idea—walkers, couples and mothers with small children. A 2-year-old boy approached me and, in all seriousness, asked,
“Have you seen a lion?”
“Hum. No, not yet. Have you?”
He shook his head. Apparently, one of his friends had seen a bear. I promised to let him know if I saw a lion. Although the park is known for gopher tortoises, fox, bobcat, bear as well as hawks and owls and snakes, a lion could have wandered in . . . .
Butterfly Garden - coonties and cocoplums
Erna Nixon Park is an area of amazing calm with an elevated boardwalk that provides a scenic loop (more than ½ mile) through three ecosystems—a pine flatwood with longleaf pines, a hammock with live oaks, cabbage palms and saw palmetto and a freshwater wetlands with red maple, American Elm, fern and duckweed.
The wild landscape helped me imagine what those early Florida explorers experienced--like William Bartram, who traveled nearby between 1765-1777.
He must have faced a nearly impenetrable wilderness--a mix of wetlands and dense thickets of unyielding vegetation.
Live oaks and saw palmetto
The boardwalk has not only numerous benches and vistas but also informational signs that identify features of vegetation—Spanish moss, air plants, duckweed, red lichen, Simpson’s Stopper, Marlberry and shiny wild coffee, coonties, cabbage or sabal palms as well as saw palmetto, to name a few.
The existence of this gem in the heart of Melbourne came about with the work of Erna Nixon, a biologist who lived nearby. She worked with the Brevard County Board of County Commissioners to preserve this land, zoned for warehouses. The park, which opened to the public in 1976, was dedicated to Nixon in 1981.
In addition to the boardwalk, the park also has a pavilion with covered picnic tables, restrooms and a small nature center.
Given traffic, development and crowded coastlines of Florida, pocket-parks like Erna Nixon provide a respite not only for residents but for wildlife, which struggles to survive with increasingly fragmented habitats.
Erna Nixon Park offers that chance to connect with nature. To observe and learn about local ecosystems. To engage in a healthy lifestyle during the day.
My hope is that additional parks will form a network of greenspaces for walking, jogging and biking trails across Melbourne.
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Related References
Foderaro, Lisa A. and Will Klein. “The Power of Parks to Promote Health: A Special Report.” Trust For Public Land. 24 May 2023. https://www.tpl.org/parks-promote-health-report. Accessed 30 November 2025.
Hawks, Dawn Flybirdie. A Walk With Erna Nixon. Orlando, Fla. 2025 (available on Amazon).
LaFortune. Christina. “Memoir pays tribute to Brevard naturalist Erna Nixon.” Florida Today. 19 November 2017. https://www.floridatoday.com/story/life/books/local-authors/2017/11/19/memoir-pays-tribute-brevard-naturalist-erna-nixon/839302001/. Accessed 30 November 2025.
“Parks, Recreation, and Green Spaces.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.” 31 January 2025. https://www.cdc.gov/active-people-healthy-nation/php/tools/parks-rec.html. Accessed 30 November 2025.
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