GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- Florida’s only invasive plant species quarantine facility could close following Gov. Rick Scott’s budget cuts, University of Florida officials said Wednesday.
Jack Payne, senior vice president for Agriculture and Natural Resources at UF’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences said funding cuts to the quarantine center at the Indian River Research and Education Center in Fort Pierce make it likely the program will end.
The legislature had approved a $180,000 increase — the first since 2004, but Scott cut all funding, $720,000, for the quarantine facility.
Florida has the largest invasive infestations in the nation, and the invasives cost the state approximately $100 million a year, Payne said.
The center was poised to release the first biological control agent against the Brazilian peppertree, which has infested nearly 700,000 acres in Central and South Florida. The trees take over space where native plants should be. Animals such as white-tailed deer, the Florida panther and migratory birds that depend on native vegetation, such as mangrove, for food and shelter, are deprived of that habitat.
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