Strategic Role and Location of
Fort Lauderdale Research and Education Center

Satellite view of South Florida showing the central location of Fort Lauderdale Research and Education Center.

The urban location of the University of Florida's Fort Lauderdale Research and Education Center places it in the center, within 60 minutes driving time, of the 5 million residents of South Florida, with its unique climate (see Climate).

As defined by geography and the public media, South Florida is the narrow coastal strip running from Miami-Dade County in the south, to Broward and Palm Beach Counties, and terminates in the north around Stuart in southern Martin County.  South Florida has over 300 golf courses, millions of suburban St. Augustinegrass lawns, and the major ports of introduction of pest organisms.

The tourism industry, so vital in the South Florida economy, uses subtropical plants that have been developed at Fort Lauderdale Research and Education Center, and is advised on plant management techniques developed at Fort Lauderdale.  South Florida is the home and workplace not only to about 1/3 of Florida's citizens, but it is also becoming the primary economic hub of Latin America.

"With our three major seaports, and our private and commercial air traffic to and from all parts of the world, we are constantly under threat of foreign plant disease and pest importation.  It is vital to maintain this strategically located experiment station for this reason alone."
- Dr. Charles Forman, Broward County agriculturist and former member of the School Board of Broward County, and former member of the State Board of Control, later called the Board of Regents.

Fort Lauderdale Research and Education Center scientists are studying the soils, water, plants, and insects of the entire South Florida urban area.  Because of critical shortages in the flow and quality of water to the Everglades, we are also concerned with teaching urban residents how to live in balance with the area's limited carrying capacity.  In addition, Fort Lauderdale Research and Education Center serves the crop producers of the Everglades Agricultural Area, near Belle Glade and South Bay, and the ornamentals and other crops of the Redlands and Homestead area.  The Center is also the site for much of the Everglades Restoration research, and hosts the United States Department of Agriculture and the United States Geological Survey.