Community Profile

Pledge Status

Did Not Report

Pledge Date

Tuesday, April 19, 2022

Program Year

2022

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Action Item Report

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City of Riverside

Riverside, CA

Patricia Lock Dawson

Mayor

Pledge Summary

The City of Riverside has a proud history of promoting healthy living spaces including native plants and fostering areas of growth for natural habitats for insects and wild life. With a population of roughly 326,000, the city is home to the historic Mission Inn Hotel & Spa, the beautiful Santa Ana River and UCR Botanical Gardens. Mayor Lock Dawson of has committed to saving the monarch butterfly and other pollinators with their signing of the Mayors' Monarch Pledge and looks forward to engaging residents in building more pollinator habitat throughout the city. This year, we plan on planting a community garden here at City Hall for native, nectar producing plants to increase the population of monarchs in our city.

Community Spotlight

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Mariposa Alley

Mariposa Alley is the beautification of an alley next to City Hall, in Downtown Riverside. It acknowledges the commitment of love for one another and brings an homage to the Monarch Butterfly, an important symbol for communities in Riverside.

Action Items Committed for 2022

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 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.
  • 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.

Program and Demonstration Gardens

  • Plant or maintain a monarch and pollinator-friendly demonstration garden at City Hall or another prominent or culturally significant community location.
  • Display educational signage at monarch gardens and pollinator habitat.

Systems Change

  • Remove milkweed from the list of noxious plants in city weed / landscaping ordinances (if applicable).
  • 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.