The National Wildlife Federation

Community Profile

Pledge Status

Complete

Pledge Date

Tuesday, February 9, 2021

Program Year

2021

Achievement

Leadership Circle

2021

Links and Uploads

View Links and Uploads

Action Item Report

View Report
Download Report

Town Of Middletown

Middletown, MD

John Miller

Burgess

Pledge Summary

Middletown is a small town of 4500 people located in the center of the fertile Middletown Valley. It is home to farms and natural environments that support our community and the natural species that live within it. Our Sustainability Committee recognized by Sustainable Maryland has worked diligently to raise awareness of the monarch butterfly and the species’ need for habitat. Our town and the committee engage with citizens and community garden groups and urge the planting if native milkweeds and nectar-producing plants. We are proud of our progress and recognize that there is more to do to protect the monarch butterfly.

8ce8328f-8f90-4271-9f90-c8f05a5fbaa1 8407a22f-df1d-4752-9fd0-81898d595492 c1626620-f1da-4315-80f1-786f9430da0f df14a092-719c-4981-801b-2741c59379af 586c0ab1-e956-460e-8901-e8b05ceeab7a ca35f49c-6f83-4a71-818e-b5525e4f1069

Community Spotlight

Action Items Committed for 2021

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 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.
  • 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).

Systems Change

  • Adopt ordinances that support reducing light pollution.