Community Profile

Pledge Summary

Town of Black Mountain - Monarch Conservation Actions – 2021 - Engaged with community garden groups and urge them to plant native milkweeds and nectar-producing plants at the Dr. Wilson Community Garden - Maintained native milkweed and nectar producing plants in public community gardens at the Dr. Wilson Community Garden under the leadership of Dianna McCall. Numerous gardeners have milkweed, tithonia, zinnia, etc. in their personal plots and there are common areas that have over 50 common milkweed plants and native wildflowers. - Engaged with city parks and recreation and public works to revise and maintain mowing programs around the monarch lifecycle in areas with milkweed, which include 10 acres of the field/disk golf course at Veterans Park with over 300 common milkweed plants. - Planted and maintained a monarch and pollinator-friendly demonstration garden at the Black Mountain Public Library. We now have 4 locations on town property that are maintained as pollinator gardens or meadow totaling over 1 acre. In addition to the 500 sq ft garden at the library, these include a 400 foot long strip section along Village Greenway, a ¾ acre meadow at Veterans park, and a 1,000 sq ft slope meadow at Lake Tomahawk. - Worked with the local schools to plant milkweed and pollinator-friendly native nectar plants in public right of way in median along Village Way, between Primary and Elementary school on the section adjacent to the Black Mountain Greenway. Black Mountain Elementary students are growing flowers from seed to be added to the garden in 2022. - Initiated and supported community science (or citizen science) efforts that help monitor monarch migration and health by conducting a monarch monitoring program through the Monarch Larva Monitoring Project. Over 10 volunteers helped to count monarch caterpillars in both spring and fall of 2021. - Displayed educational signage at monarch gardens and pollinator habitat at our Monarch waystations at Lake Tomohawk and Veterans Park. We will be working on new signage in 2022. - Pollinator Garden Coordinator, Emily Sampson held two educational public events (spring and fall) that focused on understanding the monarch lifecycle, the importance of pollinator conservation, and included discussion of how to create pollinator spaces on both public and private property.