Community Profile

Pledge Status

Complete

Pledge Date

Friday, February 3, 2023

Program Year

2023

Achievement

Leadership Circle

2023

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Action Item Report

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Bella Vista

Bella Vista, AR

John Flynn

Mayor

Pledge Summary

Bella Vista is a city of 30,000 residents, nestled in the Ozark Mountains. It has 7 lakes, 7 golfcourses and over 100 miles of bike trails. Mayor Flynn is committed to saving the Monarch Butterfly and other pollinators with the signing of The Mayors' Monarch Pledge.

Community Spotlight

Action Items Committed for 2023

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 art project to enhance and promote monarch and pollinator conservation as well as cultural awareness and recognition.
  • Engage with developers, planners, landscape architects, and other community leaders and organizers engaged in planning processes to identify opportunities to create monarch habitat.
  • Engage with Homeowners Associations (HOAs), Community Associations or neighborhood organizations to identify opportunities to plant monarch gardens and revise maintenance and mowing 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.
  • Engage with community garden groups and urge them to plant native milkweeds and nectar-producing plants.
  • 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.)

Program and Demonstration Gardens

  • Display educational signage at monarch gardens and pollinator habitat.
  • Host or support a native seed or plant sale, giveaway or swap.

Systems Change

  • Launch, expand, or continue one or more ordinances to reduce light pollution to benefit urban wildlife.