The National Wildlife Federation

Community Profile

Pledge Status

Active

Pledge Date

Monday, December 19, 2022

Program Year

2023

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Action Item Report

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City of Pleasant Hill

Pleasant Hill, IA

Sara Kurovski

Mayor

Pledge Summary

The City of Pleasant Hill has supported long-standing sustainable practices, and the use of planned and programmatic approaches to the protection, development, and maintenance of native pollinator habitats. Elected officials and City staff recognize that we have a critical role to play to protect and expand pollinator habitat. The City of Pleasant Hill is excited to join the Mayors Monarch Pledge to continue elevating the City's operational goals and ensuring best practices within the department are maintained, now and in the future.

Community Spotlight

Action Items Committed for 2023

Communications and Convening

  • 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.)
  • Engage with community garden groups and urge them to plant native milkweeds and nectar-producing plants.
  • 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 developers, planners, landscape architects, and other community leaders and organizers engaged in planning processes to identify opportunities to create monarch habitat.
  • Issue a Proclamation to raise awareness about the decline of the monarch butterfly and the species’ need for habitat.

Program and Demonstration Gardens

  • Host or support a native seed or plant sale, giveaway or swap.
  • Plant or maintain a monarch and pollinator-friendly demonstration garden at City Hall or another prominent or culturally significant community location.
  • Plant milkweed and pollinator-friendly native nectar plants in medians and public rights-of-way.
  • Add or maintain native milkweed and nectar producing plants in community gardens.
  • Display educational signage at monarch gardens and pollinator habitat.

Systems Change

  • Change ordinances so herbicides, insecticides, or other chemicals used in the community are not harmful to pollinators.
  • Remove milkweed from the list of noxious plants in city weed / landscaping ordinances (if applicable).
  • Change weed or mowing ordinances to allow for native prairie and plant habitats.
  • Increase the percentage of native plants, shrubs and trees that must be used in city landscaping ordinances and encourage use of milkweed, where appropriate.
  • Direct city property managers to consider the use of native milkweed and nectar plants at city properties where possible.
  • Integrate monarch butterfly conservation into the city’s Park Master Plan, Sustainability Plan, Climate Resiliency Plan or other city plans.