Community Profile

City of Carbondale, Illinois

Carbondale, IL

Carolin Harvey

Mayor

Pledge Summary

The vibrant City of Carbondale, Illinois rests amidst the natural wonder of Southern Illinois. Our community is free of pretense, embracing the great outdoors as readily as urban sophistication. Here, we are open to new ideas, experiences and cultures, so you are encouraged to both express yourself and be yourself, in all ways. Our community recognizes that human health depends on the health of biodiverse ecosystems that can better support the security and resiliency of food systems, healthy soil and air quality. With this pledge, the City of Carbondale is choosing to renew its commitment to assuring that pollinator-supportive landscaping and practices are prioritized in all current and future developments. Through our pledge, the City of Carbondale, Illinois commits to 1. Taking meaningful actions to protect the pollinators of Southern Illinois 2. Raising awareness about the decline of pollinators 3. Conducting review and revision of city code to encourage pollinator-supportive landscape on public and private land within City of Carbondale city limits 4. Evaluating and correcting operations and landscape maintenance practices that could have unintended and detrimental effects on pollinator species 5. Creating a community-driven “pollinator yards” pilot program to educate and support community members interested in learning how to plant pollinator-supportive landscape in their own yards.

Community Spotlight

Action Items Committed for 2024

Communications and Convening ▸

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 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 ▸

Host or support a monarch butterfly festival that is accessible to all residents in the community and promotes monarch and pollinator conservation, as well as cultural awareness and recognition.
Plant or maintain a monarch and pollinator-friendly demonstration garden at City Hall or another prominent or culturally significant community location.

Systems Change ▸

Integrate monarch butterfly conservation into the city’s Park Master Plan, Sustainability Plan, Climate Resiliency Plan or other city plans.
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.
Launch, expand, or continue one or more ordinances to reduce light pollution to benefit urban wildlife.

Past Pledge Archive

Mayor Name	Program Year	Pledge Date	Achievement
Mayor Carolin Harvey	2025	3/19/2025		View Pledge
Mayor Carolin Harvey	2024	12/12/2023	Leadership Circle	View Pledge
Mayor Pro Tempore Carolin Harvey	2023	3/30/2023	Signatories	View Pledge

Pledge Status

Pledge Date

Program Year

Achievement

Links and Uploads

Action Item Report