Community Profile

Town of Carrboro

Carrboro, NC

Barbara Foushee

Mayor

Pledge Summary

The Town of Carrboro is a progressive, vibrant community located in the Piedmont region of central North Carolina. Over 20,000 diverse residents call Carrboro home. In 2014, the Town stated its intention to promote healthy, sustainable habitats for pollinators by becoming the third municipality in the country to join the Bee City USA initiative. The Town recognizes the importance of avoiding and minimizing impacts of municipal operations on pollinators and other species, has been working to support and protect environmental features for over 40 years, and has been pursuing a Least Toxic Integrated Pest Management Policy since the 1990s. The Town has also committed to protecting and enhancing native ecosystems through its 2017 Community Climate Action Plan. Carrboro Mayor Barbara Foushee has signed the Mayors’ Monarch Pledge to further the Town’s commitment to the environment and engage residents in creating and enhancing pollinator habitat throughout the community.

Community Spotlight

Action Items Committed for 2024

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.
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.)
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.

Program and Demonstration Gardens ▸

Host or support a native seed or plant sale, giveaway or swap.
Plant milkweed and pollinator-friendly native nectar plants along roadsides, medians, or public rights-of-way.
Launch, expand, or continue an invasive species removal program that will support the re-establishment of native habitat for monarch butterflies and other pollinators.
Display educational signage at monarch gardens and pollinator habitat.

Systems Change ▸

Change weed or mowing ordinances to allow for native prairie and plant habitats.
Launch, expand, or continue an effort to change municipal planting ordinances and practices to include more native milkweed and native nectar producing plants at city properties.
Reduce or eliminate the use of herbicides, pesticides, or other chemicals that are harmful to monarchs and pollinators and urban wildlife.
Launch, expand, or continue one or more ordinances to reduce light pollution to benefit urban wildlife.

Past Pledge Archive

Mayor Name	Program Year	Pledge Date	Achievement
Mayor Barbara Foushee	2024	3/28/2024		View Pledge
Mayor Damon Seils	2023	3/31/2023	Leadership Circle	View Pledge
Mayor Damon Seils	2022	3/29/2022	Signatories	View Pledge
Mayor Lydia Lavelle	2021	4/8/2021	Signatories	View Pledge

Pledge Status

Pledge Date

Program Year

Links and Uploads

Action Item Report