Mayor Slay Launches St. Louis Riverfront Butterfly Byway with Support from GRO1000 Garden and Greenspace Program
St. Louis – Thanks to a $40,000 grant award from the U.S. Conference of Mayors and ScottsMiracle-Gro, Mayor Francis Slay today launched the St. Louis Riverfront Butterfly Byway. Together with its national partners, representatives for ScottsMiracle-Gro presented Mayor Slay with a ceremonial check at Bellerive Park, the location of the first installation of the Byway.
The 1,500 square foot portion of the Riverfront Butterfly Byway in Bellerive Park has been planted by students of two City schools and four local community groups. Over time, the Byway will be become a pollinator pathway along a 19-mile stretch of the Mississippi River in the City of St. Louis. Not only will the gardens provide important pollinator habitat consisting of native prairie plants, but they will serve for educational opportunities for residents to connect with nature and learn the importance of pollinators to our ecosystem. The effort is an expansion of Milkweeds for Monarchs: The St. Louis Butterfly Project, which aims to bolster the dwindling monarch population while better connecting people with nature.
"Urban greenspaces provide environmental benefits and also offer a host of social and economic opportunities. The fact is, people need nature," Mayor Slay said. "Connecting to nature has been shown to improve health and well-being, support learning outcomes and result in community cohesion," added Catherine Werner, the City’s Sustainability Director. "Those who experience this monarch garden and other St. Louis Riverfront Butterfly Byway locations will be able to enjoy the present, while having a glimpse at the past and providing for a better future."
GRO1000 is ScottsMiracle-Gro’s commitment to support the creation of more than 1,000 community gardens and greenspaces in the U.S., Canada, Latin America and Europe by 2018, in conjunction with its 150th anniversary. To date, more than 700 community projects have received GRO1000 funding.
"Supporting the creation of habitats where monarch butterflies and other pollinators can thrive is important to our environment," Brad Rethman, Vice President, ScottsMiracle-Gro, said. "We are honored to work with the City of St. Louis to help bring more pollinator-friendly gardens and landscapes to their city."
During the award presentation and planting, representatives from the Baden Youth Community Garden -- a pilot project of the City of St. Louis Urban Vitality and Ecology Initiative -- were presented with the ScottsMiracle-Gro Give Back To Gro Youth Gardener Award.
GRO1000 St. Louis was made possible through the combined efforts of local partners, including the City of St. Louis, and national partners including the U.S. Conference of Mayors, ScottsMiracle-Gro, Plant A Row for the Hungry, KidsGardening.org, the Garden Writers Association Foundation, and Franklin Park Conservatory and Botanical Gardens.
About ScottsMiracle-Gro
With approximately $3 billion in worldwide sales, The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company is the world's largest marketer of branded consumer products for lawn and garden care. The Company's brands are the most recognized in the industry. In the U.S., the Company's Scotts®, Miracle-Gro® and Ortho® brands are market-leading in their categories, as is the consumer Roundup® brand, which is exclusively marketed near worldwide by Scotts and owned by Monsanto. In Europe, the Company's brands include Weedol®, Pathclear®, Evergreen®, Levington®, Miracle-Gro®, KB®, Fertiligène® and Substral®. In 2016, the Company ranked on Forbes 100 Most Reputable Companies in America. For additional information, visit www.scottsmiraclegro.com.
About the U.S. Conference of Mayors
The U.S. Conference of Mayors is the official nonpartisan organization of cities with populations of 30,000 or more. There are 1,210 such cities in the country today, and each city is represented in the Conference by its chief elected official, the mayor. For additional information, visit usmayors.org, facebook.com/usmayors or twitter.com/usmayors.
About Milkweeds for Monarchs: The St. Louis Butterfly Project
Mayor Slay launched Milkweeds for Monarchs: The St. Louis Butterfly Project in 2014 to foster the connection between people and urban natural resources where they live, work, learn and play. Milkweeds for Monarchs is part of the City of St. Louis Urban Vitality & Ecology Initiative, advances objectives in the City of St. Louis Sustainability Plan, and carries out a priority in the Mayor's Sustainability Action Agenda. The Mayor led the effort by having the City create 50 monarch gardens, and challenged the community to plant an additional 200 monarch gardens to celebrate the City's 250th birthday. The program was previously expanded to reach further into the community by creating monarch gardens in schools and neighborhoods. For additional information, visit stlouis-mo.gov/ monarchs.
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