City participates in monarch program

March 22, 2017

The City of Bartlesville will participate in the National Wildlife Federation’s Monarch Conservation Program — a nationwide effort to provide habitat for the Monarch butterfly, whose population has decreased by an estimated 90 percent in the U.S. and Mexico over the past 20 years due to forest fragmentation, chemicals and global warming.

Following a vote of support from the Bartlesville City Council in March, the City has committed to take at least eight actions to help the monarch and other pollinators. Bartlesville is now part of a national collaboration of mayors and local government chief executives to help save the declining monarch butterfly.

While monarchs are found across the United States — numbering some 1 billion in 1996 — their numbers have declined significantly in recent years, a result of numerous threats, particularly loss of habitat due to agricultural practices, development and cropland conversion. Degradation of wintering habitat in Mexico and California has also had a negative impact on the species.

“Mayors and other local government officials play a pivotal role in advancing monarch butterfly conservation in urban and suburban areas,” said Collin O’Mara, president and CEO of the National Wildlife Federation. “By working together we can ensure that every American child has a chance to experience majestic monarchs in their backyards and communities.”

Through the National Wildlife Federation’s Mayors’ Monarch Pledge, cities and municipalities commit to create habitat and educate citizens on the ways they can make a difference at home or in their community. Mayors who take the pledge commit to at least three of 25 action items to help save the monarch butterfly. These actions include creating a monarch-friendly demonstration garden at city hall, converting abandoned lots to monarch habitat, changing mowing schedules to allow milkweed to grow unimpeded and 22 other possible actions.

The City of Bartlesville will work with a local garden club to raise awareness of the issue and take steps to help provide milkweed and other food sources, Lisa Beeman, Community Development and Parks director said recently.

“The Mayor’s for Monarchs Committee has identified several action items geared toward educating the public about how we can all help with this very important conservation issue,” Beeman said. “There are many things we can all do, as individuals and as a community. The committee will be talking about those things in detail in the coming weeks.”

Learn more at NWF.org/MayorsMonarchPledge and get more updates from the National Wildlife Federation at NWF.org/News.