Pflugerville Doing Its Part To Save The Monarch Butterfly Population

PFLUGERVILLE, TX -- The city of Pflugerville is doing its part to help increase the Monarch butterfly population.

At Tuesday's Pflugerville City Council meeting, Mayor Jeff Coleman announced the city would be participating in a National Wildlife Federation initiative dubbed the Mayor's Monarch Pledge to engage local governments in monarch recovery. In tandem, the effort promotes participation in conservation efforts among communities.
The Pflugerville Parks & Recreation Department has identified several steps that it's taking or plan to initiate to preserve the Monarch butterfly. These measures include planting habitat gardens across the city, hosting a milkweed giveaway at the Pfarmer's Market, planting more native nectar plants in parks and greenbelts and expanding invasive species removal programs to make it possible to re-establish native milkweed and nectar plants to the landscape.

In the last few years, the Monarch population has dropped precipitously. Last year, the number of Monarch butterflieswintering in Mexico plummeted to the lowest levels since data began to be collected in 1993. That drop worries experts who fear the butterflies' migration from the U.S. to Canada could one day disappear altogether.

Plfugerville is doing its part to reverse that trend. And with the help of the community, those Monarchs are sure to soar to new heights.