Community Profile

Pledge Status

Did Not Report

Pledge Date

Tuesday, March 16, 2021

Program Year

2021

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Action Item Report

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Decorah

Decorah, IA

Lorraine Borowski

Mayor

Pledge Summary

An environmentally friendly, progressive, open-minded community that embraces opportunities to do better. We boast over 664 acres of parkland that has the potential to help monarchs and help the effort of pollinator conservation.

Community Spotlight

Action Items Committed for 2021

Communications and Convening

  • Engage with community garden groups and urge them to plant native milkweeds and nectar-producing plants.
  • 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.
  • Create a community art project to enhance and promote monarch and pollinator conservation as well as cultural awareness and recognition.
  • 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.

Program and Demonstration Gardens

  • Host or support a native seed or plant sale, giveaway or swap.
  • Add or maintain native milkweed and nectar-producing plants in gardens in the community.
  • Display educational signage at monarch gardens and pollinator habitat.

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.