The National Wildlife Federation

Community Profile

Pledge Status

Active

Pledge Date

Tuesday, March 28, 2023

Program Year

2023

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Action Item Report

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Town of Hempstead

Hempstead, NY

Don Clavin

Town Supervisor

Pledge Summary

The Town of Hempstead is proud to be America's largest township, with a population of approximately 770,000 people, and also one of the nation’s oldest, dating back to 1644. Bordering New York City to the east, and the Hempstead Bay estuary and Atlantic Ocean on the southern border, the town encompasses more than 142 square miles, 20,000 acres of wetlands, and 180 miles of coastal waterways. In the Town's first year of taking the Pledge in 2022, Leadership Circle status was achieved. For the second year participating in the pledge, the Town is committing to various actions that build upon programs established in 2022, including public outreach and education about native pollinator plants that support monarch populations, a citizen science project where the town will be tagging monarch butterflies in partnership with Camp ANCHOR in Lido Beach, and installing several new demonstration gardens at town facilities. The town owns and operates a greenhouse that is focused on native pollinator plant species that will be able to support many of these action items.

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Community Spotlight

Action Items Committed for 2023

Communications and Convening

  • Create a community-driven educational conservation strategy that focuses on and benefits local, underserved residents.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • Launch or maintain an outdoor education program(s) (e.g., at schools, after-school programs, community centers and groups) that builds awareness and creates habitat by engaging students, educators, and the community in planting native milkweed and pollinator-friendly native nectar plants (i.e., National Wildlife Federation’s Eco-Schools USA Schoolyard Habitats program and Monarch Mission curriculum).
  • 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.
  • Facilitate or support a milkweed seed collection and propagation effort.
  • Host or support a native seed or plant sale, giveaway or swap.

Systems Change

  • Direct city property managers to consider the use of native milkweed and nectar plants at city properties where possible.