1990s, hosted a family of threatened Florida scrub jays. The city is working with faculty of the Florida Institute of Technology to promote graduate student research and class projects on Samsons Island Nature Park and to assist in devising and implementing maintenance programs to preserve and enhance desirable wildlife habitats. The city has approved the use of inland dirt-officially called upland sources-to be used in beach nourishment projects. These projects will bury part of a natural reef. After three projects, the sea shells are gone, and turtle nesting declined significantly in the years following this nourishment. Flora Due to the moderating influence of surrounding water bodies, the climate on the barrier island supports tropical species of plants normally found far to the south. Brevard County's barrier island to, approximately, Cape Canaveral, constitutes the northernmost limit of the range of many of these plant species. At the same time, the infrequency and mildness of freezes in the Central Florida region serves to define the southern limit of many plants found in temperate zones. Vegetated sand dunes are found along most of the beach's length and provide the major defense against storm events. Native plant species found on the dunes include sea oats, Sabal palmetto, sea grape, railroad vine, dollar weed, coral bean, Spanish bayonet, wax myrtle, yaupon holly, and several grass species. More salt-tolerant and wind-tolerant species, such as sea oats and railroad vine, are found predominantly on the ocean side of the dune, while other dune vegetation species do not generally show such zonation. These plants assist in building the dune by trapping windblown sand and in stabilizing the dune with extensive lateral root systems. Geology There are approximately of coquina rock outcrops frequently exposed along the low-tide line of the city's ocean beach. The National Marine Fisheries Service has classified the rock as an Essential Fish Habitat-Habitat Area of Particular Concern. It is important to aquatic life and found only in a few locations along the Eastern seaboard. On the city's ocean beach can be found fossil Atlantic ghost crabs, the remnants of a unique set of geological circumstances which preserved these creatures when they died in their burrows perhaps about 110,000 years ago. There are significant deposits of sand, marl, coquina and possibly phosphate within the city limits. Surrounding areas History Satellite Beach became incorporated in 1957 by Percy L. Hedgecock and his brothers, B.D.(Shine) and Herbert(Hub) Hedgecock,