Community Profile

Pledge Status

Complete

Pledge Date

Tuesday, March 14, 2023

Program Year

2023

Achievement

Signatories

2023

Links and Uploads

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Action Item Report

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City of Waukesha

Waukesha, WI

Shawn Reilly

Mayor

Pledge Summary

Waukesha is a community of approximately 72,000 people in southeast Wisconsin. Our community has the wonderful resource of the Fox River that flows from the north to the south dividing the city and providing green space, park and recreational opportunities along the way. Pollinators and the Monarch Butterfly uses the habitat along the river to breed and efforts to preserve this are taken so that this can continue. The City also has a Butterfly Community Garden that is at the Environmental Education Center (a cooperative program between the School District of Waukesha and the city) that is maintained by volunteers. This garden along with a natural prairie at Rivers Crossing helps to encourage pollinators in the City.

Community Spotlight

Action Items Committed for 2023

Communications and Convening

  • Issue a proclamation to raise awareness about the decline of the monarch butterfly and the species’ need for habitat. This proclamation must incorporate a focus on monarch conservation.
  • 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 community garden groups and urge them to plant native milkweeds and nectar-producing plants.

Program and Demonstration Gardens

  • Plant milkweed and pollinator-friendly native nectar plants along roadsides, medians, or public rights-of-way.
  • Plant or maintain a monarch and pollinator-friendly demonstration garden at City Hall or another prominent or culturally significant community location.

Systems Change

  • Increase the percentage of native plants, shrubs and trees that must be used in city landscaping ordinances and encourage use of milkweed, where appropriate.