Community Profile

Pledge Status

Did Not Report

Pledge Date

Thursday, March 30, 2023

Program Year

2023

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Action Item Report

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City of South Bend

South Bend, IN

James Mueller

Mayor

Pledge Summary

South Bend is a city of 100,000 people located in north-central Indiana. Mayor Mueller, along with the Parks and Recreation Department, is interested in helping sustain the monarch butterfly population. We are trying to achieve this through various means in our city parks. We value monarchs, as do the citizens of South Bend!

Community Spotlight

Action Items Committed for 2023

Communications and Convening

  • 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.
  • Engage with community garden groups and urge them to plant native milkweeds and nectar-producing plants.

Program and Demonstration Gardens

  • Display educational signage at monarch gardens and pollinator habitat.
  • 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

  • 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 an effort to change municipal planting ordinances and practices to include more native milkweed and native nectar producing plants at city properties.
  • Increase the percentage of native plants, shrubs and trees that must be used in city landscaping ordinances and encourage use of milkweed, where appropriate.