Community Profile

Pledge Status

Active

Pledge Date

Friday, December 20, 2024

Program Year

2025

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City of Cathedral City

City of Cathedral City, CA

Nancy Ross

Mayor

Pledge Summary

Cathedral City is located in the Coachella Valley, in the Southern California desert. It has a population of approximately 50,000 people. The City is dedicated to preservation and conservation of the natural environment and supports pollinator education through a variety of activities throughout the community. Mayor Ross has committed to saving the monarch butterfly and pollinators with the signing of the Mayor's Monarch Pledge and looks forward to engaging residents in creating more pollinator habitats throughout Cathedral City.

Community Spotlight

Action Items Committed for 2025

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.
  • 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.
  • Create a community art project to enhance and promote monarch and pollinator conservation as well as cultural awareness and recognition.

Program and Demonstration Gardens

  • Host or support a native seed or plant sale, giveaway or swap.
  • Facilitate or support a milkweed seed collection and propagation effort.
  • 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 butterfly festival that is accessible to all residents in the community and promotes monarch and pollinator conservation, as well as cultural awareness and recognition.

Systems Change

  • Reduce or eliminate the use of herbicides, pesticides, or other chemicals that are harmful to monarchs and pollinators and urban wildlife.
  • Launch, expand, or continue one or more ordinances to reduce light pollution to benefit urban wildlife.