Community Profile

Pledge Status

Complete

Pledge Date

Monday, March 10, 2025

Program Year

2025

Achievement

Leadership Circle

2025

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Action Item Report

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BIDDEFORD

BIDDEFORD, ME

Martin Grohman

Mayor

Pledge Summary

Since 2021, Biddeford Community Gardens in partnership with the City of Biddeford, has committed to helping save the Monarch Butterfly by preserving existing native habitat and creating new habitat on publicly owned lands. Our pledge also includes educating the public about the importance of the Monarch and how together, we can implement positive, healthy changes in the way we do things. such as eliminating the use of pesticides/herbicides, that will greatly improve the Monarch's chances for long-term survival.

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Community Spotlight

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Monarch at Williams Court

Each year, we continue to add wildflowers and native plantings to each of our four community gardens.

Action Items Committed for 2025

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.
  • Engage with community garden groups and urge them to plant native milkweeds and nectar-producing plants.
  • 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 gardening leaders and partners (e.g., Master Naturalists, Master Gardeners, Nature Centers, Native Plant Society Chapters , other long-standing and influential community leaders) to support monarch butterfly conservation.
  • Create a community art project to enhance and promote monarch and pollinator conservation as well as cultural awareness and recognition.

Program and Demonstration Gardens ▸

  • Launch or maintain an outdoor education program(s) (e.g., at schools, after-school programs, community centers and groups) that builds awareness and creates habitat by engaging students, educators, and the community in planting native milkweed and pollinator-friendly native nectar plants (i.e., National Wildlife Federation’s Schoolyard Habitats program and Monarch Mission curriculum).
  • Add or maintain native milkweed and nectar-producing plants in gardens in the community.
  • Display educational signage at monarch gardens and pollinator habitat.
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