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Greensboro signs on to monarch butterfly conservation effort

AP Photo/Matt Slocum

The City of Greensboro has signed on to a national effort to help protect monarch butterflies. 

City officials, along with Mayor Nancy Vaughan, have signed the National Wildlife Federation's Mayors' Monarch Pledge, signaling a commitment to help boost a declining monarch butterfly population.

According to a news release, the Greensboro Parks and Recreation Department will lead an effort to help re-establish native habitats for butterflies and other pollinators, and educate the public about the environmental impact they can have.

Greensboro currently maintains a number of pollinator gardens throughout the city. The Greensboro Arboretum hosts a certified monarch waystation, and the Greensboro Science Center is expanding its butterfly conservation projects.

Officials say monarch butterfly numbers have declined by about 90 percent since the 1990s due to loss of habitat.

By signing the Mayors' Monarch Pledge, Greensboro joins a national effort to enhance butterfly conservation in urban and suburban areas.

Neal Charnoff joined 88.5 WFDD as Morning Edition host in 2014. Raised in the Catskill region of upstate New York, he graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in 1983. Armed with a liberal arts degree, Neal was fully equipped to be a waiter. So he prolonged his arrested development bouncing around New York and L.A. until discovering that people enjoyed listening to his voice on the radio. After a few years doing overnight shifts at a local rock station, Neal spent most of his career at Vermont Public Radio. He began as host of a nightly jazz program, where he was proud to interview many of his idols, including Dave Brubeck and Sonny Rollins. Neal graduated to the news department, where he was the local host for NPR's All Things Considered for 14 years. In addition to news interviews and features, he originated and produced the Weekly Conversation On The Arts, as well as VPR Backstage, which profiled theater productions around the state. He contributed several stories to NPR, including coverage of a devastating ice storm. Neal now sees the value of that liberal arts degree, and approaches life with the knowledge that all subjects and all art forms are connected to each other. Neal and his wife Judy are enjoying exploring North Carolina and points south. They would both be happy to never experience a Vermont winter again.

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