Las Cruces is located near the Panamanian border on Costa Rica 's southern Pacific coastal range (8° 47' N, 82° 57' W). A mid-elevation site, the station's borders extend through an elevational range of 1,120 to 1,385 meters and encompass 235 hectares of premontane rain forest. The grounds surrounding the buildings have 8 hectares of cultivated collections and 4 hectares of fallow and experimental plots. The Station serves as the principal center in the region for teaching, research, and on-site public education. The Wilson Hall comfortably accommodates course groups with sleeping and study quarters, and a new dining room situated a short distance away will be able to serve three meals a day to 80 or more persons. Duplex cabins are available to long-term researchers and families with children, and 12 double-occupancy cabins with private baths and balconies provide extremely attractive space for birding groups and natural history visitors of all categories. Spacious non-air-conditioned lab space is outfitted with dissecting and compound microscopes, balances, centrifuges, leaf-area meter, etc.
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