Community Profile

Pledge Status

Active

Pledge Date

Wednesday, February 4, 2026

Program Year

2026

Links and Uploads

View Links and Uploads

Action Item Report

Download Report

City of San Luis Obispo

San Luis Obispo, CA

Erica Stewart

Mayor

Pledge Summary

San Luis Obispo is a small town on the Central Coast of California and we have Monarch butterflies that migrate through our town and have documented roosting sites within City limits. We have a very progressive community for resource protection and maintain a robust open space program to protect the special plants and animals that live in and adjacent to our town. We have programs and staff dedicated to monitoring for sensitive plants and animals, implement habitat protection projects, and community enhancement programs for urban greening and beautification to support pollinators and butterflies. We are very proud of and celebrate our efforts to protect wildlife and especially this iconic species.

Community Spotlight

Action Items Committed for 2026

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.
  • 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 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.
  • Engage with developers, planners, landscape architects, and other community leaders and organizers engaged in planning processes to identify opportunities to create monarch habitat.

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.
  • 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).
  • Initiate or support community science (or citizen science) efforts that help monitor monarch migration and health.
  • 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

  • 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.
  • Integrate monarch butterfly conservation into the city’s Park Master Plan, Sustainability Plan, Climate Resiliency Plan or other city plans.
  • California Specific: Pass a resolution to protect over-wintering monarch butterfly habitat on public or private lands.