Community Profile

Pledge Status

Complete

Pledge Date

Monday, March 20, 2023

Program Year

2023

Achievement

Leadership Circle

2023

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 city of approximately 98,000 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. Fayetteville’s population has increased 33% from the 2010 census count of 73,580. This rapid growth will 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 2023

Communications and Convening

  • 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

  • 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.
  • 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

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