Community Profile

Pledge Status

Complete

Pledge Date

Tuesday, January 18, 2022

Program Year

2022

Achievement

Leadership Circle

2022

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Action Item Report

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City of Harker Heights

Harker Heights, TX

Spencer H. Smith

Mayor

Pledge Summary

Harker Heights is a City in Central Texas with a population of roughly 34,000. The city is home to many who are serving or have served in the United States Armed Forces due to its proximity to Fort Hood, one the largest Army installations in the world. Mayor Spencer H. Smith of Harker Heights, TX has committed to saving the monarch butterfly and other pollinators with their signing of the Mayors’ Monarch Pledge and looks forward to engaging residents in building more pollinator habitat throughout the city.

Community Spotlight

Action Items Committed for 2022

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.
  • Create a community art project to enhance and promote monarch and pollinator conservation as well as cultural awareness and recognition.
  • 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 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.
  • 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.)

Program and Demonstration Gardens

  • Add or maintain native milkweed and nectar-producing plants in gardens in the community.
  • Plant or maintain a monarch and pollinator-friendly demonstration garden at City Hall or another prominent or culturally significant community location.
  • Host or support a native seed or plant sale, giveaway or swap.

Systems Change

  • Integrate monarch butterfly conservation into the city’s Park Master Plan, Sustainability Plan, Climate Resiliency Plan or other city plans.