Community Profile

City of Elizabeth

Elizabeth, NJ

Ruby Contreras

Public Information Officer

Pledge Summary

The City of Elizabeth, in partnership with Groundwork Elizabeth, will distribute pollinator plants at our annual plant giveaway, accompanied by educational materials on how to create and sustain pollinator gardens and their critical role in supporting monarch butterflies. In addition, we will provide coloring books and activity pages to approximately 2,000 second-grade students who visit the farm each year. These materials are designed to teach students about the monarch butterfly life cycle, migration journey, and the importance of planting pollinator-friendly species. Each participating class will receive a milkweed plant to take back and establish at their school garden, reinforcing hands-on learning and habitat creation. groundwork Elizabeth also supplies milkweed plants to over 200 community gardens county wide. To further enhance the experience, as classes visit the farm, Mayor Chris Bollwage will host a monarch butterfly release event with older students, offering a memorable, place-based learning opportunity that highlights conservation in action.

Community Spotlight

Mayor Bollwage Monarchs and Youth

The Mayor took part in a Monarch release party with some Elizabeth NJ Art students

Groundwork Elizabeth staff on Monarch day

Ashley showing youth about butterflies

Elizabeth youth learning about monarchs

Elizabeth youth amazed by how butterflies will land on you...

The Mayor teaching about Monarchs

Mayor Bollwage is always quick to teach our youth the benefits of Monarchs!!

Action Items Committed for 2025

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 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.

Program and Demonstration Gardens ▸

Host or support a native seed or plant sale, giveaway or swap.
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).
Host or support a monarch neighborhood challenge to engage neighborhoods and homeowners' associations within the community to increase awareness, support community unity around a common mission, and/or create habitat for the monarch butterfly.
Initiate or support community science (or citizen science) efforts that help monitor monarch migration and health.

Systems Change ▸

Increase the percentage of native plants, shrubs and trees that must be used in city landscaping ordinances and encourage use of milkweed, where appropriate.
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.

Past Pledge Archive

Mayor Name	Program Year	Pledge Date	Achievement
Public Information Officer Ruby Contreras	2025	12/9/2024		View Pledge
Mayor Chris Bollwage	2023	2/16/2023	Signatories	View Pledge
Mayor J. Christian Bollwage	2022	3/31/2022		View Pledge

Pledge Status

Pledge Date

Program Year

Links and Uploads

Action Item Report