Community Profile

Pledge Status

Complete

Pledge Date

Wednesday, March 29, 2023

Program Year

2023

Achievement

2023

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Action Item Report

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City of Watertown

Watertown, MA

George Proakis

City Manager

Pledge Summary

Watertown is a city in the greater Boston area with a population of just over 35,000. Our community, though highly urbanized, boasts important natural resources, from protected open space along the Charles River to our growing number of pocket parks and community gardens. City Manager George Proakis has committed to protecting and promoting pollinator species such as the monarch butterfly by signing the Mayors’ Monarch Pledge and looks forward to engaging residents, businesses, and neighborhood groups on the importance of providing pollinator habitat throughout the city.

Community Spotlight

Action Items Committed for 2023

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 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 developers, planners, landscape architects, and other community leaders and organizers engaged in planning processes to identify opportunities to create monarch habitat.
Create a community art project to enhance and promote monarch and pollinator conservation as well as cultural awareness and recognition.

Program and Demonstration Gardens ▸

Plant milkweed and pollinator-friendly native nectar plants along roadsides, medians, or public rights-of-way.
Initiate or support community science (or citizen science) efforts that help monitor monarch migration and health.

Systems Change ▸

Reduce or eliminate the use of herbicides, pesticides, or other chemicals that are harmful to monarchs and pollinators and urban wildlife.

Past Pledge Archive

Mayor Name	Program Year	Pledge Date	Achievement
City Manager George Proakis	2025	3/11/2025		View Pledge
City Manager George Proakis	2024	1/4/2024	Leadership Circle	View Pledge
City Manager George Proakis	2023	3/29/2023	Signatories	View Pledge