McAllen awarded Leadership Status for Monarch Pledge

The City of McAllen was recognized by the National Wildlife Federation as a Leader in monarch conservation, making it the first city in the region and the thirteenth in Texas to achieve the designation in 2021. According to the National Wildlife Federation, more than 600 mayors and heads of local and tribal government have participated in the Mayors’ Monarch Pledge, which aims to create habitat for the monarch butterfly and other pollinators while educating people about monarchs and how to help them.

For its pledge, the City of McAllen elected to complete eight action items related to monarch conservation in April 2021. These actions ranged from raising awareness about monarchs and how residents can help the species to creating habitat for the butterflies and other pollinators.

As part of the habitat creation efforts, McAllen partnered with the McAllen Independent School District, Friends of the Wildlife Corridor, and the US Fish and Wildlife Service to install native plant gardens at six elementary schools. Each school was provided guidance by the Center for Urban Ecology at Quinta Mazatlan, which coordinated how to prepare the garden beds, delivered donated plants, compost, and mulch, and then planted the gardens with the students and their teachers.

The Center for Urban Ecology (CUE) at Quinta Mazatlan also hosted native plant sales during their annual Hummingbird Morning and Texas Native Plant Week events, encouraging residents through workshops and programs to use native plants for their benefits to monarchs and other local wildlife. Additionally, the CUE also curates community science projects to help monitor monarch butterfly seasonality in the region and to determine which native plant species are important nectar sources for the butterfly.

“We found that, based on observations submitted to iNaturalist, monarch butterflies were most often observed drinking nectar from native plants like the mistflowers (Chromolaena odorata and Conoclinium betonicifolium), Texas Lantana (Lantana urticoides), and Mexican Trixis (Trixis inula),” said John Brush, urban ecologist at Quinta Mazatlan. “While this data is far from perfect, it does offer some ideas of what plants folks can use to help support monarchs in our landscapes.”

While monarch butterfly populations are still lower than their historic numbers, conservation efforts by towns and cities can make a difference in helping not just monarch butterflies but also the many other pollinators and wildlife that rely on native plants.

Story Courtesy Quinta Mazatlan