Monarch Butterfly Animation
Transformation, Migration and Diet
Visit the mural at
Carnegie Park's Monarch Shelter
This colorful, vibrant mural was
created by Visual Artist/Teaching Artist Alison Zapata, learning and
creating in partnership with Carlynton High School art teacher
Marlynn Vayanos, her students, and Borough of Carnegie community
members during a Pittsburgh Center for the Arts and Media Artist
Residency Project. The mural was inspired by and Mayor Stacie
Riley's National Wildlife Federation Mayor's Monarch Pledge and
completed the public art action. This project was supported by the
Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, a state agency funded by the
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the Borough of Carnegie, the Carnegie
Shade Tree Commission, and the Carnegie Museum of Natural History.
2024 -
Mayor Stacie Riley and her daughter Marlee were in attendance with PA
State Representative Anita Kulik. Carnegie Shade Tree Commission members Gina and Chris James, Councilman Pete Mullins, and volunteer Will Bigham handed out native nectars, seeds, milkweed,brochures, watering cans and bulbs at Carnegie's
4th Annual Butterfly Festival. Monarch Princess Mary Grace Nichol spoke with children and posed for pictures. Artists and Shade Tree Commission members Alicia and Nate Kesneck created art with visitors while Carnegie Elementary PTA members Laura and Becky painted faces. Milkweed plants grown by H3art Farms and native nectars grown by Bednar Farms
Mayor Riley proclaims August 25, 2024 as MONARCH
BUTTERFLY DAY in CARNEGIE and COMMENDS Shade Tree Commission for their
hard work.
2023 - Carnegie Shade Tree Commission members Gina Thornberg and Chris James, Councilman Pete Mullins, and volunteers Will and Sam Bigham handed out native nectars, seeds, milkweed,brochures, watering cans and bulbs at Carnegie's 3rd Annual Butterfly Festival. Monarch Princess Mary Grace Nichol spoke with children and posed for pictures. Artists and Shade Tree Commission members Alicia and Nate Kesneck created tie dyed art with visitors while Carnegie Elementary PTA members Laura and Becky painted faces. Milkweed plants grown by H3art Farms and native nectars grown by Bednar Farms
Mayor Riley proclaims August 20, 2023 as MONARCH
BUTTERFLY DAY in CARNEGIE and COMMENDS Shade Tree Commission for their
hard work.
2023 BUTTERFLY FESTIVAL - Carnegie's Shade Tree Commission and community volunteers handed out native nectars, seeds, milkweed, brochures, watering cans and bulbs and visitors at Carnegie's 3rd Annual Butterfly Festival. Local artist and Shade Tree Commission member Alicia Kesneck created tie dye shirts with children while CarnegieElementary's PTA painted faces.
MAYOR RILEY'S MONARCH CONSERVATION PLEDGE PUBLIC ART ACTION FOR 2023
Carnegie artist and Shade Tree Commission Vice President Alicia Kesneck created a Monarch butterfly display featured at the Andrew Carnegie Free Library.
Carnegie Shade Tree Commission members and junior council handed out butterfly garden kits, brochures, coloring books, crayons, Monarch information, certified habitat information, and more at the Library's annual Earth Day Celebration, Saturday, April 22, 2023
BUTTERFLY GARDEN - Carnegie Borough Building, 1 Veterans Way
2022 BUTTERFLY FESTIVAL - Carnegie's Shade Tree Commission and community volunteers handed out native nectars, seeds, milkweed, brochures, watering cans and bulbs
and visitors at Carnegie's 2nd Annual Butterfly Festival. Local artist and Shade Tree Commission member Alicia Kesneck created butterflies
using paint on canvas with children while CarnegieElementary's PTA painted faces.
Mayor Riley proclaims July 31, 2022 as MONARCH
BUTTERFLY DAY in CARNEGIE and COMMENDS Shade Tree Commission for their
hard work.
MONARCH BUTTERFLY
CREATIVE COMPETITION
Mayor Stacie Riley presented Carlynton rising junior Leslie
Rwigyema with the Mayor's Monarch Conservation Pledge Creative
Award for her original freeform lamentpoem.
The presentation took place Sunday afternoon at Third Street Art
Gallery.
MONARCH BUTTERFLY
PUBLIC ART PROJECT using RECYCLED MATERIALS
Artist Alicia Kesneck designed Monarch Butterfly Sculpture
Pieces using recycled materials installed in the East Main
Parking Lot Rain Garden.
Alicia turned trash into treasure by creating pieces with Bishop
Canevin students: Kelsey Adamski, Ayla Altman, Miriam Hardy,
Addison Hillebrand, Gretchen Klauss, Alexis Leppert-Bell, Emily
Maida, Clare Ruffing, and Hannah Zurbola
Monarchs on Morrow Avenue
Photos by: Patty Reaghard
Mayor Stacie Riley attended the Andrew Carnegie Library's
Earth Day Celebration on April 25.
Along with Carnegie Borough administrative assistant Deneen Underwood, Mayor Riley provided education on monarch butterfly conservation, migration, transformation, and diet with butterfly masks for attendees to color.
Program CommitmentAction Items
Check back for progress. As these action items are undertaken progress will be recorded here.
Program Demonstration Gardens
Launch or maintain communication efforts to encourage residents to plant monarch gardens and make communication available in other languages.
Work with Carnegie's Shade Tree Commission to assist in continuing their efforts to plant native milkweeds and nectar-producing plants.
Work with public works department and other relevant staff to identify opportunities to revise and maintain mowing programs and milkweed/native nectar plant planting programs.
Support monarch butterfly conservation and create a community-driven educational conservation strategy that focuses on and benefits local, underserved residents.
Create a community art project to enhance and promote monarch and pollinator conservation as well as cultural awareness and recognition.
Issue a Proclamation to raise awareness about the decline of the monarch butterfly and the species need for habitat.
Program Demonstration Gardens
Plant or maintain a public monarch and pollinator-friendly demonstration garden
Convert vacant lots to monarch habitat.
Plant milkweed and pollinator-friendly native nectar plants in medians and public rights-of-way.
Launch or maintain an outdoor education program that builds awareness and creates habitat by engaging students, educators, and the community in planting native milkweed and pollinator-friendly native nectar plants (i.e., National Wildlife Federation's Eco-Schools USA Schoolyard Habitats program and Monarch Mission curriculum).
Earn or maintain recognition for being a wildlife-friendly borough by participating in other wildlife and habitat conservation efforts (i.e., National Wildlife Federation's Community Wildlife Habitat program).
Host or support a monarch neighborhood challenge to increase awareness, support community unity around a common mission, and/or create habitat for the monarch butterfly.
Initiate or support community science (or citizen science) efforts that help monitor monarch migration and health.
Work with Carnegie Shade Tree Commission to maintain native milkweed and nectar producing plants in community gardens.
Host a monarch butterfly festival that is accessible to all residents and promotes monarch and pollinator conservation, as well as cultural awareness and recognition.
Display educational signage at monarch gardens and pollinator habitat.
Systems Change
Change ordinances so herbicides, insecticides, or other chemicals used in the community are not harmful to pollinators.
Remove milkweed from the list of noxious plants in borough weed/landscaping ordinances.
Change weed or mowing ordinances to allow for native plant habitats.
Increase the percentage of native plants, shrubs, and trees that must be used in borough landscaping ordinances and encourage use of milkweed, where appropriate.
Direct property managers within the borough to consider the use of native milkweed and nectar plants where possible.
Integrate monarch butterfly conservation into the borough's master plan and future sustainability and climate action plans.
Adopt ordinances that support reducing light pollution.
