Gumbo Limbo Nature Center is a unique cooperative project of the City of Boca Raton, the Greater Boca Raton Beach and Park District, Florida Atlantic University, and Friends of Gumbo Limbo. The center is best known for its involvement with protecting the area's sea turtles. For over three decades, Gumbo Limbo's sea turtle conservation team has come to the aid of sick and injured sea turtles in the Boca Raton area. In 2010, they opened a rehabilitation facility to treat wounded turtles on campus. The goal of the rehabilitation program is to treat the turtles until they are able to survive in the wild.

As a beacon for environmental education, research, and conservation, Gumbo Limbo’s 20 acres on the protected barrier island provide refuge to many varieties of plants and animals - some rare or endangered. While the center is currently closed to the public due to the coronavirus pandemic, the center normally allows visitors can tour the boardwalk and see what Florida looked like before modern development and industrialization, count the thousands of tropical fish housed in their outdoor marine aquariums, relax in their gorgeous butterfly garden, check on the patients in our sea turtle rehabilitation facility, and chat with researchers.