Collaboration and Teamwork Create Success for Youth-Led Pollinator Advocacy and Civic Engagement

The National Wildlife Federation’s Mayors’ Monarch Pledge (MMP) program encourages mayors and other local leaders to take action for the monarch butterfly, an iconic species that has declined dramatically in recent years. The Eastern monarch population has decreased by 84% and the Western monarch population by more than 95% in some years—clear signs that monarchs need our help. Through the MMP, municipal leaders commit annually to create habitat for pollinators and educate residents about how they can make a difference at home and in their community for the beloved monarch. 

Since the program’s beginning in 2015, over 2,300 individual pledges have been taken by local leaders across North America, resulting in nearly 11,600 acres of pollinator habitat enhanced or established, and over 13.6 million people engaged in monarch recovery efforts in cities and towns across the country!

In 2023—thanks to inspiration from the Pine Springs’ 3rd graders who convinced 14 North Carolina mayors to take the Pledge through their ambitious and hopeful letter-writing campaigns—the MMP team and NWF’s EcoSchools staff came together to create the MMP action card. The MMP action card encourages youth-led pollinator advocacy and civic engagement and has been a huge success in its first year of implementation (school year 2024/2025)!

Terra Centre Elementary School in Fairfax County, Virginia, is one of five schools in the county that is making a difference for monarchs through the MMP action card. Students in the second grade wrote 50 letters and created a class poster filled with action ideas. The letters moved the local county Supervisor to request a visit to the school, along with a school board member and regional principal. During the visit, students kept the local officials on their toes, quizzing their guests using recently gained monarch knowledge. 

Their passion and enthusiasm were contagious, leading their local Supervisor to propose an official vote for the Mayors’ Monarch Pledge at a January board meeting. The ripple effect of working on the MMP action card and watching the live broadcast of the local Board of Supervisors action inspired students to build more community connections, leading to a seed library project with a local Girl Scout troop. 

At Holmes Elementary School in Lincoln, Nebraska, the student eco-action team, The Prickly Planet Protectors, organized a letter-writing campaign to the city’s mayor as part of their MMP action card commitment. They wrote 25 letters thanking the mayor for her participation in the Pledge in previous years and encouraging continued participation. The mayor responded personally, with a letter praising their efforts and confirming that the city was committed to ongoing participation, with ten actions already underway for 2025.

Initially, some students wondered if they were even allowed to “bother the mayor,” but they quickly learned that their voices were not only welcome, they could also make a real impact. Energized by the experience, they shared their success with peers, initiating schoolwide conversations about community action and the importance of protecting pollinators.

At Minnesota’s Prairie Creek Community School, students learned that sometimes things don’t always happen as planned. They voted to engage with the MMP action card to take action in their community to protect the monarchs. One thing that guided their excitement for a chance to make a city-wide change was their connection to butterflies and milkweed at home.

In the classroom, students used materials created by university student partners to learn about the types of milkweed native to their community, annual butterfly migration patterns, and other facts about monarchs. Next up was their letter-writing campaign, where they learned useful advocacy skills and discovered that they had the power to effect change on the local level. 

Students did not give up, even when they discovered that the mayor was not able to commit due to a lack of funding in the current budget but will work with the students and their university partners to include a budget item next year to support planting of native milkweed as part of the Mayors’ Monarch Pledge.  

The MMP pledge-period opens on December 1 and will remain open until March 31, 2026! Take a look at the MMP signatory page to see if your mayor has pledged to take action to help save monarchs in recent years—and check out our resources for how to engage your mayor and encourage them to get involved! Schools can register for free to join the EcoSchools U.S. program and explore the entire action card library.