The National Wildlife Federation

Community Profile

Pledge Status

Active

Pledge Date

Monday, March 27, 2023

Program Year

2023

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Action Item Report

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City of Pacifc Grove

Pacific Grove, CA

Bill Peake

Mayor

Pledge Summary

Pacific Grove is a community of 15,000 located on the Pacific coast in Monterey County, California. We are an overwintering site for Monarch butterflies and have enormous community support for the iconic butterfly, which is incorporated into our city logo, and is part of the identity of the city. Each year we hold a Butterfly Parade to welcome the butterflies to town; with school children of all ages participating, and enthusiastic spectator support, this event a community-wide celebration. We are sustaining our Monarch Sanctuary and will be continuing and initiating new efforts to encourage residents to plant nectar gardens and maintain safe landscapes for the Monarchs.

Community Spotlight

Action Items Committed for 2023

Communications and Convening

  • Engage with developers, planners, landscape architects, and other community leaders and organizers engaged in planning processes to identify opportunities to create monarch habitat.
  • Engage with Homeowners Associations (HOAs), Community Associations or neighborhood organizations to identify opportunities to plant monarch gardens and revise maintenance and mowing programs.
  • Engage with gardening leaders and partners (e.g., Master Naturalists, Master Gardeners, Nature Centers, Native Plant Society Chapters , other long-standing and influential community leaders) to support monarch butterfly conservation.
  • Engage with city parks and recreation, public works, sustainability, and other relevant staff to identify opportunities to revise and maintain mowing programs and milkweed / native nectar plant planting programs.
  • Engage with community garden groups and urge them to plant native milkweeds and nectar-producing plants.
  • Launch or maintain a public communication effort to encourage residents to plant monarch gardens at their homes or in their neighborhoods. (If you have community members who speak a language other than English, we encourage you to also communicate in that language; Champion Pledges must communicate in that language.)

Program and Demonstration Gardens

  • Display educational signage at monarch gardens and pollinator habitat.
  • Host or support a monarch butterfly festival that is accessible to all residents in the community and promotes monarch and pollinator conservation, as well as cultural awareness and recognition.
  • Launch, expand, or continue an invasive species removal program that will support the re-establishment of native habitats for monarch butterflies and other pollinators.
  • Add or maintain native milkweed and nectar producing plants in community gardens.
  • Initiate or support community science (or citizen science) efforts that help monitor monarch migration and health.
  • Plant milkweed and pollinator-friendly native nectar plants in medians and public rights-of-way.
  • Plant or maintain a monarch and pollinator-friendly demonstration garden at City Hall or another prominent or culturally significant community location.
  • Host or support a native seed or plant sale, giveaway or swap.

Systems Change

  • Change ordinances so herbicides, insecticides, or other chemicals used in the community are not harmful to pollinators.
  • Integrate monarch butterfly conservation into the city’s Park Master Plan, Sustainability Plan, Climate Resiliency Plan or other city plans.
  • Direct city property managers to consider the use of native milkweed and nectar plants at city properties where possible.
  • Increase the percentage of native plants, shrubs and trees that must be used in city landscaping ordinances and encourage use of milkweed, where appropriate.
  • Remove milkweed from the list of noxious plants in city weed / landscaping ordinances (if applicable).
  • California Specific: Pass a resolution to protect over-wintering monarch butterfly habitat on public or private lands.