The National Wildlife Federation

Community Profile

Pledge Status

Active

Pledge Date

Thursday, March 2, 2023

Program Year

2023

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Action Item Report

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City of Vaughan

City of Vaughan, ON

Steven Del Duca

Mayor

Pledge Summary

The City of Vaughan is located in the Regional Municipality of York, just north of Toronto. In 2018 City Council adopted a resolution committing to the Mayors’ Monarch Pledge and the City has worked diligently to fulfil the actions annually since. Mayor Del Duca is excited to be taking the pledge in 2023 and for the City of Vaughan to be launching new actions around citizen science, and maintenance and mowing programs.

Community Spotlight

Action Items Committed for 2023

Communications and Convening

  • Issue a Proclamation to raise awareness about the decline of the monarch butterfly and the species’ need for habitat.
  • 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 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.
  • 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.
  • Earn or maintain recognition for being a wildlife-friendly city by participating in other wildlife and habitat conservation efforts (i.e., National Wildlife Federation’s Community Wildlife Habitat program).
  • 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.
  • Change weed or mowing ordinances to allow for native prairie and plant habitats.