The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is proposing protection for one of the nation’s most beloved species — the monarch butterfly — and is encouraging the public to be part of its recovery.
The Service is seeking public input on a proposal to list the species as threatened with species-specific protections and flexibilities to encourage conservation under section 4(d) of the Endangered Species Act (ESA).
Public comments will be accepted on the proposal until March 12, 2025. The Service will then evaluate the comments and any additional information on the species and determine whether to list the monarch butterfly.
“The iconic monarch butterfly is cherished across North America, captivating children and adults throughout its fascinating lifecycle. Despite its fragility, it is remarkably resilient, like many things in nature when we just give them a chance,” said U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director Martha Williams. “Science shows that the monarch needs that chance, and this proposed listing invites and builds on unprecedented public participation in shaping monarch conservation efforts.
Providing monarchs with enough milkweed and nectar plants, even in small areas, can help put them on the road to recovery. Working together, we can help make this extraordinary species a legacy for our children and generations to come.”
This proposed rule, says the agency, will help “build on and enhance monarch conservation efforts while balancing activities in support of economic growth.”
With its notable orange and black markings, the monarch butterfly is one of the most recognizable insects in the world. In North America, monarchs are grouped into two long-distance migratory populations. The eastern migratory population is the largest and overwinters in the mountains of central Mexico. The western migratory population primarily overwinters in coastal California.
In the 1980s, over 4.5 million western monarchs flocked to overwintering grounds in coastal California. In the mid-1990s, an estimated 380 million eastern monarchs made the long-distance journey to overwintering grounds in Mexico, completing one of the longest insect migrations in the world.
Today, the eastern migratory population is estimated to have declined by approximately 80%. The western migratory population has declined by more than 95% since the 1980s, putting the western populations at greater than 99% chance of extinction by 2080. During this same period, the probability of extinction for eastern monarchs ranges from 56 to 74%, according to the Service’s most recent species status assessment.
Threats to monarchs include loss and degradation of breeding, migratory and overwintering habitat; exposure to insecticides; and the effects of climate change . Although many people have already helped conserve the butterfly, additional habitat and protections are needed to ensure the species is conserved for future generations.
To assist with monarch conservation efforts, the Service is also proposing critical habitat for the species at a portion of its overwintering sites in coastal California.
Overwintering habitat provides an essential resting place for monarchs during the cold winter months and helps them prepare for breeding in the early spring. In total, the Service is proposing 4,395 acres of critical habitat for the western migratory monarch population across Alameda, Marin, Monterey, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz and Ventura counties in California. A critical habitat designation imposes no requirements on state or private land unless the action involves federal funding, permits or approvals.
The Service collaborates closely with Tribes, federal and state agencies, academic institutions and non-government organizations to carry out conservation efforts for the monarch butterfly. Many partners across the monarch’s range are involved in surveys, monitoring and habitat improvements. Much of this work takes place on private lands with the support of local landowners.
The proposal to list the monarch butterfly, and designate critical habitat, was published in the Federal Register on December 12, 2024. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2024-12-12/pdf/2024-28855.pdf.
A 90-day comment period will open on December 12, 2024, and will close on March 12, 2025.
If the proposal is finalized, monarchs will gain not only protection from harm but also a comprehensive recovery plan and ongoing funding to restore their habitat.
“The fact that a butterfly as widespread and beloved as the monarch is now the face of the extinction crisis is a tri-national distress signal warning us to take better care of the environment that we all share,” said Tierra Curry, a senior scientist at the Center for Biological Diversity. “What’s bad for monarchs is bad for humans, so we have to stop pretending that our health is somehow separate from that of the wildlife our activities are decimating.”
Following the lowest count ever in 2014, the Center for Biological Diversity, Center for Food Safety, Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation and renowned Monarch biologist Lincoln Brower petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service seeking protection for the butterflies and their habitat under the Endangered Species Act. Monarchs were placed on the candidate waiting list for protection in 2020.
The proposed listing is a result of a lawsuit filed by the Centers to get a date by which the Service would make a decision on whether to provide protections.
“Today’s monarch listing decision is a landmark victory 10 years in the making. It is also a damning precedent, revealing the driving role of pesticides and industrial agriculture in the ongoing extinction crisis,” said George Kimbrell, legal director at the Center for Food Safety. “But the job isn’t done: Monarchs still face an onslaught of pesticides. The Service must do what science and the law require and promptly finalize protection for monarchs.”
Scientists estimate that 15 acres of occupied forest is the minimum threshold for the migrating pollinators to be above extinction risk in North America. In winter 2023 there were only 2.2 acres of monarchs, and the 2024 count is also predicted to be bleak because of poor summer weather conditions for breeding and abnormally warm September temperatures that delayed the start of migration.
Migratory monarchs face tremendous threats. Their initial decline was driven by widespread loss of milkweed, the caterpillar’s sole food source, due to increased herbicide use on genetically engineered corn and soybean crops — most notably, Monsanto’s Roundup. All stages of monarchs are harmed by neonicotinoid insecticides used in crop seed coatings and on ornamental plants.
Grasslands and other green spaces that provide wildflowers for nectar-seeking adult monarchs continue to be lost to sprawl development. Millions of monarchs are killed by vehicles annually as they migrate across the continent. In their winter habitat in Mexico, forests and streams are being lost at record rates to grow avocados for unsustainable avocado demand in the United States.
Non-migratory populations of monarchs live year-round in southern U.S. states. These butterflies have smaller wings and are harmed by parasites that build up on non-native tropical milkweed plants that don’t die back in winter.
In Canada monarchs were listed as endangered under the Species At Risk Act in 2023. In Mexico they are considered a species of special concern. The International Union for Conservation of Nature ranks them as vulnerable, a category denoting threatened status.