UF/IFAS Extension and 4-H in St. Lucie County

The UF/IFAS Extension St. Lucie County main office is at 8400 Picos Road, Suite 101, Fort Pierce, FL 34945, phone (772) 462-1660, and a Master Gardener help desk works part time from Morningside Library in Port St. Lucie.

The UF/IFAS Extension St. Lucie County home page and the Urban Horticulture page give the Morningside Library desk Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, while the subject matter directory page gives Tuesday and Friday afternoons; both versions are listed above as posted. The main office fax, (772) 462-1510, appears on the same page. St. Lucie County's own Cooperative Extension page places UF/IFAS Cooperative Extension and the Oxbow Eco-Center together in the county's Cooperative Extension and Environmental Education Division, both focused on education, training and assistance for St. Lucie County residents.

The St. Lucie County extension office lists five program groups: agriculture, environment, 4-H youth development, family and consumer sciences, and lawn and garden.

On the St. Lucie County Cooperative Extension page, agriculture covers citrus, commercial horticulture, pesticide training, beef cattle and horses; environment covers natural resources and the Master Naturalist Program; family and consumer sciences covers a Food and Nutrition Information Center, a nutrition reading list and the Hurricane House; 4-H covers leaders and volunteers, newsletters and a 4-H Advisory Committee; and lawn and garden covers the Master Gardener Program, Florida Yards and Neighborhoods and environmental horticulture. The UF/IFAS subject matter directory page organizes the same work by subject: commercial fruit crops, natural resources, 4-H youth development, urban horticulture, family and consumer sciences, and commercial horticulture.

The St. Lucie County home page describes the office as translating research into community initiatives, classes and volunteer opportunities in agriculture, gardening and sustainability, with online and in person classes posted on its events listing. Typical requests it names range from questions about fruit blight to continuing education certification for professionals.

St. Lucie County 4-H is a UF/IFAS educational program for youth ages 5 to 18, built around clubs, county activities, group projects, special interest clubs and state events.

The St. Lucie County 4-H page says members, parents and volunteer leaders learn and work together, and that the program aims to build life skills such as leadership, communication and problem solving while members gain knowledge in project areas including STEM, healthy living and citizenship. The St. Lucie County 4-H team splits its work between positive youth development with volunteer opportunities and a second track covering 4-H water programs, embryology and general support.

The page links the tools a St. Lucie County family uses to join and plan: 4-H Online for enrollment, Florida 4-H, the St. Lucie County Fair Standards of Excellence for 4-H projects, Florida 4-H Summer Camp, a year in advance program calendar and a program handbook for the 2025 to 2026 year, and a St. Lucie County 4-H Spotlight. Volunteer leaders are part of the model: the county's extension page lists a Leaders and Volunteers section and a 4-H Advisory Committee under 4-H Youth Development. Questions go to the main office line, (772) 462-1660, listed on the 4-H page footer.

Home gardeners in St. Lucie County get advice from the Master Gardener Volunteer Help Desk at Morningside Library in Port St. Lucie, by phone at 772-337-5654 or by email at sl-mg@ifas.ufl.edu.

The Urban Horticulture page says the St. Lucie County Master Gardener Volunteer program has more than 100 active volunteers, who answer gardening questions, lead workshops, maintain demonstration gardens, support school and community gardens, lead youth and adult activities and staff the help desk. Classes and workshops are posted on the office's Eventbrite page, and site visits are requested through the urban horticulture agent's email listed on that page.

The same St. Lucie County page describes the Florida-Friendly Landscaping program, which teaches low maintenance landscapes that save water, reduce pollution and support wildlife, with site visits and irrigation evaluations, yard design guidance and plant recommendations, neighborhood presentations, and FFL Yard Recognition for environmentally sound practices. Homeowners, homeowners associations and local governments are all named as partners. The Urban Horticulture program's direct line is (772) 462-1132.

A St. Lucie County news release posted October 31, 2022 reported that more than 500 community members attended the Ag-Xtension Fall Festival and Plant Sale held on Saturday, Oct. 15 of that year by the extension office and its Master Gardener Volunteers, that a special mobility access day the day before drew 28 participants, and that St. Lucie County Master Gardener Volunteers won two State Awards of Excellence, in Inclusion and Diversity and in Demonstration Garden, for rebuilding the butterfly and pollinator garden at the office.

St. Lucie County growers, nurseries, sod producers and landscape professionals use the extension office for technical support, pest scouting training, pesticide applicator courses with continuing education credits and Green Industries Best Management Practices training.

The Commercial Horticulture page for St. Lucie County lists training and technical support for sod production, plant nurseries and green industry professionals; pest scouting to reduce pesticide use; diagnosis of turfgrass problems; education on water conservation, water quality, nutrient management, safe pest management and pesticide use; commercial pesticide applicator trainings and courses for CEUs; and the Green Industries Best Management Practices course, known as GI-BMP, which promotes responsible use of fertilizer, pesticides and irrigation. The commercial horticulture contact works from the St. Lucie County Agricultural Extension office at 8400 Picos Road in Fort Pierce, open weekdays 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

St. Lucie County agricultural producers are also covered by the citrus, beef cattle and horse programs listed on the county's Cooperative Extension page, and by the commercial fruit crops program on the UF/IFAS subject matter directory page.

Extension in St. Lucie County is a partnership: the University of Florida administers it, and the St. Lucie County Board of County Commissioners decides each year how much the county contributes.

The UF/IFAS St. Lucie County subject matter directory page traces the national Cooperative Extension Service to the Smith-Lever Act of 1914 and describes it as a partnership among state land grant universities, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and county governments, which share in planning, financing and operating extension programs; in Florida, the service is administered by the University of Florida.

State law fills in the county's role. Section 1004.37, Florida Statutes says the Florida Cooperative Extension Service is administered through the University of Florida and supported programmatically by the University of Florida and Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University in collaboration with county governments. In each county the board of county commissioners annually determines the extent of its financial participation, and that participation influences the number of county extension agents and clerical staff and the scope of the local program. The statute also gives the board the power to approve or disapprove persons recommended for extension positions, and lets a county ask by resolution for a list of three qualified candidates for each opening, a power that applies to the St. Lucie County board as to every county board in Florida.