Community Profile

Pledge Status

Complete

Pledge Date

Thursday, March 28, 2024

Program Year

2024

Achievement

Leadership Circle

2024

Links and Uploads

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Action Item Report

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City of Pickering

Pickering , ON

Kevin Ashe

Mayor

Pledge Summary

Over the past several years, Pickering has developed and implemented a number of initiatives to support the Monarch butterfly and other important pollinators such as birds, bats and bees. Through participation in the Mayors’ Monarch Pledge, Pickering will continue to help create Monarch habitat, raise community awareness about the importance of these species, and educate residents on roles they can play. Through collaboration we also endeavor to encourage other Canadian cities to do the same.

Community Spotlight

Action Items Committed for 2024

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 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.

Program and Demonstration Gardens ▸

  • Host or support a native seed or plant sale, giveaway or swap.
  • 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 Schoolyard Habitats program and Monarch Mission curriculum).
  • Host or support a monarch neighborhood challenge to engage neighborhoods and homeowners' associations within the community to increase awareness, support community unity around a common mission, and/or create habitat for the monarch butterfly.
  • Add or maintain native milkweed and nectar-producing plants in gardens in the community.
  • Launch, expand, or continue an invasive species removal program that will support the re-establishment of native habitat for monarch butterflies and other pollinators.

Systems Change ▸

  • Remove milkweed from the list of noxious plants in city weed / landscaping ordinances (if applicable).
  • Increase the percentage of native plants, shrubs and trees that must be used in city landscaping ordinances and encourage use of milkweed, where appropriate.
  • Reduce or eliminate the use of herbicides, pesticides, or other chemicals that are harmful to monarchs and pollinators and urban wildlife.
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