Community Profile

Pledge Status

Active

Pledge Date

Thursday, December 7, 2023

Program Year

2024

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Action Item Report

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City of Lewisville

Lewisville, TX

TJ Gilmore

Mayor

Pledge Summary

The City of Lewisville is committed to The National Wildlife Federation's Mayor's Monarch Pledge in order to protect the Texas State Insect, the monarch butterfly. Its 2500-mile migration slices through the heart of the City, bringing an immense amount of joy to all of our citizens. In recent years however, as butterfly populations have declined, witnessing the Great Monarch Migration has become difficult, to say the least. In order to support this iconic insect's journey through North Texas, the City of Lewisville will support community education, innovate the field of parkland management, construct pollinator habitat, and bring our citizens together for events that provide a butterfly's eye view of how pollinators impact our daily lives.

Community Spotlight

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Mariposas

Our annual butterfly festival, Mariposas, brings in 300 people to talk with leaders in local conservation organizations about what they can do to support pollinator lifecycles in their own home.

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.
  • Create a community-driven educational conservation strategy, initiative, or practice that focuses on and benefits local, underserved residents.
  • 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.
  • 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

  • Display educational signage at monarch gardens and pollinator habitat.
  • Host or support a monarch butterfly festival that is accessible to all residents in the community and promotes monarch and pollinator conservation, as well as cultural awareness and recognition.
  • Launch, expand, or continue an invasive species removal program that will support the re-establishment of native habitat for monarch butterflies and other pollinators.
  • 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.
  • 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.