Community Profile

City of Carbondale, Illinois

Carbondale, IL

Carolin Harvey

Mayor Pro Tempore

Pledge Summary

The vibrant City of Carbondale, Illinois rests amidst the natural wonder of Southern Illinois. Our community is free of pretense, embracing the great outdoors as readily as urban sophistication. Here, we are open to new ideas, experiences and cultures, so you are encouraged to both express yourself and be yourself, in all ways. Our community recognizes that human health depends on the health of biodiverse ecosystems that can better support the security and resiliency of food systems, healthy soil and air quality. With this pledge, the City of Carbondale is choosing to renew its commitment to assuring that pollinator-supportive landscaping and practices are prioritized in all current and future developments. Through our pledge, the City of Carbondale, Illinois commits to 1. Taking meaningful actions to protect the pollinators of Southern Illinois 2. Raising awareness about the decline of pollinators 3. Conducting review and revision of city code to encourage pollinator-supportive landscape on public and private land within City of Carbondale city limits 4. Evaluating and correcting operations and landscape maintenance practices that could have unintended and detrimental effects on pollinator species 5. Creating a community-driven “pollinator yards” pilot program to educate and support community members interested in learning how to plant pollinator-supportive landscape in their own yards.

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 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 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 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.
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.
Adopt ordinances that support reducing light pollution.

Past Pledge Archive

Mayor Name	Program Year	Pledge Date	Achievement
Mayor Pro Tempore Carolin Harvey	2023	3/30/2023		View Pledge

The National Wildlife Federation

Pledge Status

Pledge Date

Program Year

Links and Uploads

Action Item Report