Fairfax County leaders have joined hundreds of municipalities across the nation in pledging to do more to help the monarch butterfly’s survival.
The county’s Board of Supervisors agreed during its Jan. 14 meeting to sign on to the National Wildlife Foundation’s Mayors’ Monarch Pledge Program, which commits local governments to take various actions to stem loss of habitat for pollinators.
“More than 600 heads of local governments have taken the pledge, and it’s time for Fairfax to join,” Braddock District Supervisor James Walkinshaw said.
Walkinshaw, who cosponsored the resolution with Board Chairman Jeff McKay, credited the students at Terra Centre Elementary School in Burke with bringing the plight of the monarch butterfly to local leaders’ attention.
According to the National Wildlife Federation, the degradation and loss of summer breeding habitat in the U.S. and a loss of winter habitat in Mexico and coastal California have decimated the numbers of monarchs. The butterfly’s population has declined by 90% since the 1990s.
Walkinshaw and Mount Vernon District Supervisor Dan Storck noted that Fairfax County already has taken steps to support pollinators. Among them:
- Creating “no-mow” areas on Park Authority lands
- Restoring old pastureland where possible
- Planting and maintaining pollinator gardens at more than 30 local schools
- Putting up signage to raise awareness
- Providing, via Fairfax County Public Library, seeds for cultivation into plants that will attract pollinators
- Becoming more aggressive in removing invasive plant species
Those steps “are making a big difference for the monarch butterfly and other pollinators,” Walkinshaw said.
McKay added that signing on to the national pledge would serve as a reminder of “some things we need to do better on and can do more on.”
