Community Profile

Pledge Status

Complete

Pledge Date

Wednesday, April 27, 2022

Program Year

2022

Achievement

Leadership Circle

2022

Links and Uploads

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Action Item Report

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City of Fayetteville

Fayetteville, AR

Lioneld Jordan

Mayor

Pledge Summary

Fayetteville, Arkansas is a small city of approximately 87,500 people located in the Ozark Mountains of Northwest Arkansas and home to the University of Arkansas. Fayetteville and the Northwest Arkansas region has experienced unprecedented growth in recent decades due in part the region’s scenic beauty, low cost of living and the home presence of multiple fortune 500 companies such as Walmart and Tyson Foods, which have brought jobs and economic development. In the last 10 years Fayetteville’s population has increased 19% from the 2010 census count of 73,580 people. This rapid growth can undoubtedly impact the local ecology without proactive efforts to protect our natural resources and ecosystem. By participating in the Mayors’ Monarch Pledge, Mayor Jordan is leading Fayetteville in taking steps to protect our monarch and pollinator populations through direct stewardship and education activities. These efforts, combined with the participation of several other municipalities across the region, will serve to raise local awareness and increase pollinator habitat and the presence of the monarch butterfly in Fayetteville and throughout Northwest Arkansas.

Community Spotlight

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Fayetteville GreenWayStation

This monarch waystation, installed in 2021 along the Razorback Regional Greenway at the Marion Orton Recycling Center, was planned, built and constructed by a dedicated volunteer (pictured here) in partnership with the City of Fayetteville.

Action Items Committed for 2022

Communications and Convening

  • Engage with community garden groups and urge them to plant native milkweeds and nectar-producing plants.

Program and Demonstration Gardens

  • Display educational signage at monarch gardens and pollinator habitat.
  • Launch, expand, or continue an invasive species removal program that will support the re-establishment of native habitat for monarch butterflies and other pollinators.
  • Add or maintain native milkweed and nectar-producing plants in gardens in the community.
  • Initiate or support community science (or citizen science) efforts that help monitor monarch migration and health.
  • Plant milkweed and pollinator-friendly native nectar plants along roadsides, medians, or public rights-of-way.

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.
  • Change weed or mowing ordinances to allow for native prairie and plant habitats.
  • Launch, expand, or continue one or more ordinances to reduce light pollution to benefit urban wildlife.