GEAS Partners with Boise Mayor's Monarch Pledge
Photo credit Sara Miller
If you’ve walked through Kathryn Alberston park or visited the Warm Springs pollinator garden, you have noticed that Boise is making some positive changes for the pollinators. No-mow areas, native wildflowers, and carefully planted milkweed are all part of a commitment to protect the pollinators that keep our 300,000 native Idaho plants reproducing, and the agricultural plants producing the food we eat. With the Monarch butterfly as a candidate under the Endangered Species Act, and listed as endangered by the IUCN, special action items are warranted. In 2022 Boise Mayor Lauren McLean signed a pledge to be implemented by Parks and Recreation and caring partners like GEAS. The “Mayors’ Monarch Pledge” initiative, spearheaded by the National Wildlife Federation, has committed communities across North America. Taking the pledge has lead to formation of the Mayor’s Monarch Task Force, which is focusing on the following actions for 2023:
Engaging with community garden groups and urging them to plant native milkweeds and nectar-producing plants
Engaging with HOA’s, Community Associations, or neighborhood organizations to identify opportunities to plant monarch gardens and revise maintenance and mowing programs
Plant milkweed and pollinator-friendly native nectar plants in medians and public rights-of-way
One of the big ways GEAS is helping to implement the Mayor’s Monarch challenge is with the Boise River ReWild project. One hundred riparian plots are being restored and enhanced with native seedlings, including nectar bearing plants like goldenrod, rabbitbrush, and native milkweed, which is the essential host plant for the monarch caterpillar. We grew over 4,000 showy milkweed plants in 2022 and are growing thousands more this year. We’ll also be directly seeding some areas to create milkweed stands. All the milkweed and other seedlings are planted by volunteers. If you’d like to join the ReWild project to grow, plant, weed, water, and nurture native seedlings for the benefit of the river and its residents, this is a great time to join us for 2023.
If you’d like to sign up to work with the City’s Pollinator Posse here.
See what the Buzz is about Pollinators in Boise.
Read about the milkweed species native to Idaho and how they support monarchs.