You may have heard about many local park initiatives to create habitat for monarchs and other pollinators to not only support these valuable insects, but also to bring thousands of communities across the country the opportunity to learn about monarchs and enjoy their beauty. The National Recreation and Park Association (NRPA) is putting its weight behind monarch conservation in public parks nationwide and we’re excited to announce their recent partnership with the Monarch Joint Venture.
The National Recreation and Park Association is a national non-profit organization that broadly represents public parks and recreation across the United States. NRPA provides training and education for members, and accreditation and other services for park agencies. NRPA’s membership of 50,000 individual members and over a thousand public park and recreation agencies have conservation as an important component of their mission and NRPA members work to engage the public in conservation in a variety of ways at the community level. Examples include participation in citizen science activities, volunteer conservation and habitat projects, removal of invasive species, and creation of pollinator habitats.
Public parks are ideal locations for creation of monarch habitats. In most cities and suburban communities, park agencies are often the largest owner of public lands, and most of these lands are permanently protected for conservation. NRPA brings the ability to coordinate the establishment of a network of interconnected parks and other public lands as high quality habitats that are dedicated to monarch and other pollinators. In addition to habitat restoration, parks provide great opportunities for public education and support for citizen science as well as professional research.
Through its initiative Parks for Monarchs, NRPA promotes monarch and other pollinator conservation by disseminating information and resources to its members, training professionals to coordinate volunteers and manage citizen science projects, and giving professionals the tools and resources to inspire children and youth. Partnership with the MJV will help facilitate more monarch education, outreach, research, and monitoring in public parks, and will connect the network of parks across the country with monarch conservation resources.
The Monarch Joint Venture is thrilled about this partnership with NRPA to facilitate monarch conservation and education through public parks throughout the nation, and looks forward to working with park professionals through NRPA. Visit www.nrpa.org/parks4monarchs for more information about their work on monarch conservation and how to connect to a park agency near you.