Green Cay National Wildlife Refuge

Parks and historic sites St. CroixLast verified October 31, 2026

Around St. Croix

Rooftops of Christiansted and its harbor seen from Recovery Hill, with the reef and open sea beyond — Christiansted, St. Croix

Arched sidewalk galleries along a street of colorful historic buildings in Christiansted — Christiansted, St. Croix

The red walls of Fort Frederik on the Frederiksted waterfront, with green hills rising behind the town — Frederiksted, St. Croix

Green Cay National Wildlife Refuge, a 14-acre island off St. Croix's north shore east of Christiansted, is closed to the public, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) provides no visitor services. To see the East End's protected areas, visit instead the St. Croix Environmental Association's Southgate reserve or The Nature Conservancy's lands at Jack and Isaac Bays, both open to the public. FWS set the cay aside in 1977 to protect the endangered St. Croix ground lizard, and it holds the largest remaining natural population of the species; it also shelters nesting birds, the National Park Service notes. The refuge ends at the waterline, excluding the reefs; the territorial St. Croix East End Marine Park begins at Green Cay. Conch shell middens that once lay on the shore, estimated at up to 33,000 shells, showed about 1,000 years of human use, from as early as 1020 AD.

Services

Closed to the public
No visitor services
Off-refuge education and outreach by FWS staff

How we checked

Last verified on October 31, 2026. We checked it against the sources below.

Source: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, https://www.fws.gov/refuge/green-cay (largest remaining natural population of the St. Croix ground lizard), https://www.fws.gov/refuge/green-cay/about-us (established 1977, entire 14-acre island, boundary at sea level excluding reefs, conch middens that once occurred on the shoreline, up to 33,000 shells, from about 1020 AD, Caribbean Islands National Wildlife Refuge Complex) and https://www.fws.gov/refuge/green-cay/visit-us (closed to the public, no visitor services, off-refuge outreach); National Park Service, https://www.nps.gov/chri/planyourvisit/nearbyattractions.htm (14 acres, ground lizard, bird nesting habitat, East End Marine Park stretches from Green Cay on the north side to Great Pond); Friends of the St. Croix East End Marine Park, https://eastendmarineparkfriends.org/ (refuge closed to the public; Southgate reserve owned by the St. Croix Environmental Association and accessible to the public; Nature Conservancy lands near Jack and Isaac Bays accessible to the public); all accessed 2026-10-31. Map point: GNIS feature 1613982, 'Green Cay' (Island); FWS publishes 17.766769, -64.666557 for the refuge.

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