Community Profile

Pledge Status

Complete

Pledge Date

Friday, April 16, 2021

Program Year

2021

Achievement

Signatories

2021

Links and Uploads

View Links and Uploads

Action Item Report

View Report
Download Report

City of St. Augustine

St. Augustine, FL

Tracy Upchurch

Mayor

Pledge Summary

Founded in 1565, St. Augustine is the oldest continuously occupied settlement of European and African-American origin in the United States. Forty-two years before the English colonized Jamestown and fifty-five years before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock, the Spanish established at St. Augustine this nation's first enduring settlement.

Community Spotlight

d8544f23-5b67-49bb-a673-fbf3b536042d

Milkweed at City Hall

In 2022 the City of St. Augustine planted native milkweed in City Hall's courtyard garden beds.

Learn More
fa086860-a873-4384-944a-69aea48631a0

Milkweed at the WWTP

In 2021 the City of St. Augustine planted milkweed in a garden bed at the Wastewater Treatment Plant.

Learn More
3f8affaf-b425-4826-a8d7-b3bab59f301d

2023

In 2023 the City planted more milkweed at City Hall and saw regrowth from milkweed planted in 2022.

Learn More

Action Items Committed for 2021

Communications and Convening

  • 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.
  • 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.

Program and Demonstration Gardens

  • Plant or maintain a monarch and pollinator-friendly demonstration garden at City Hall or another prominent or culturally significant community location.

Systems Change

  • 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.