Save the Monarch Butterfly from Extinction

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The monarch butterfly is facing an uncertain future, and if it is not soon reclassified as endangered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, it may not have a future at all.

The Xerces Society’s annual winter count of the monarchs recorded fewer than 2,000 butterflies along the California coast¹, while previous years have tallied tens of thousands. Researchers were stunned by the disappearance of these insects, which have historically covered pines during their migration south from Marin County in Northern California to San Diego, before moving on to Mexico.

On the other side of the Rocky Mountains, another group of monarchs that takes the eastern route from Canada to Mexico, is now about 80% smaller than what it was in the mid-1990s².

One reason for the monarch butterfly’s disappearance is the destruction of milkweed habitat along their route across the U.S. Expanding housing developments and the proliferations of pesticides and herbicides coupled with climate change and wildfires have disrupted this 3,000-mile stretch of wildflower-lined butterfly highway³.

The Xerces Society and the University of Nevada, Reno collaborated on a study of milkweed plants that found pesticides in conventional and organic farms, wildlife refuges, and urban areas; basically every site they sampled. Further, many of the compounds they isolated were found to be harmful to Monarch larvae⁴.

In 2017, Washington State University researchers predicted that the monarch population only had a few years left once its numbers dropped below 30,000⁵.

It’s possible we may not see the monarchs travel this way much longer.

Reclassifying the monarch butterfly as an endangered species would support conservation efforts and give these insects the federal protections they need to bounce back from the brink. However, despite meeting the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s criteria for an “endangered” species, the federal government decided against listing the monarch butterfly as either threatened or endangered in December 2020⁶.

“The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service agrees that monarchs are threatened with extinction,” said Sarina Jepsen, director of endangered species at the Xerces Society conservation group⁷. “However, this decision does not yet provide the protection that monarchs, and especially the western population, so desperately need to recover.”

The monarch butterfly is in urgent need of protection. Sign the petition below and join thousands of others in demanding the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Department of the Interior amend the Lists of Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants to include the monarch butterfly!