Thousand Islands National Park area to defend the British from American invasion. Inside the park, Cedar Island, a small island visible from downtown Kingston, Ontario, is the site of a Martello tower named Cathcart Tower. The park was established in 1904, the first Canadian national park east of the Rocky Mountains. It was called "St. Lawrence Islands National Park" until 2013, when it was renamed to "Thousand Islands National Park" to reflect the natural area in the name. In 1997, the park was named one of the national parks with the highest levels of ecological impairment. Animals that inhabit this national park are coyotes,
Thousand Islands (Cocoa Beach) (Sw.) Willd.), blolly ("Guapira discolor" (Spreng.) Little), black ironwood ("Krugiodendron ferreum"(Vahl) Urb.), twinberry ("Myrcianthes fragrans"(Sw.) McVaugh), white indigo-berry ("Randia aculeata" L.), saffron plumb ("Sideroxylon celastrinum"(Kunth) T. D. Penn.), and wild lime ("Zanthoxylum fagara" (L.) Sarg.). Many of these plants are not found farther north than Brevard County. The state of Florida and Cocoa Beach purchased the islands north of Minutemen Causeway in 1988. Acquisition of the remaining south islands was completed by 2007. These islands are managed as the Thousand Islands Conservation Area by Brevard County Environmentally Endangered Lands Program. Efforts to acquire the remaining privately held islands began in