December 2024 Edition | Volume 78, Issue 12
Published since 1946
Fish and Wildlife Service Proposes Endangered Species Act Protection for Monarch Butterfly
On Dec 10, 2024, The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) proposed that monarch butterflies receive protection as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act. The announcement kicks off a 90-day public comment period. The Service is seeking public input on the proposal to list the species as threatened with species-specific protection and provide input on methods to encourage conservation under section 4(d) of the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The FWS will review all comments then will decide whether to tweak the proposal, publish the listing, or drop the effort. The agency has until December of 2025 to publish the listing if it moves forward.
The proposed listing comes after years of thorough assessment of monarch butterfly populations, including a “warranted but precluded” status in 2020, due to higher-priority listing actions. Presently, eastern migratory populations of monarch butterflies have declined by more than 80% since the 1980s, and western migratory populations by more than 95% in the same timeframe. The assessment found the primary drivers affecting Monarch butterflies to be the loss and degradation of breeding, migratory, and overwintering habitat; exposure to insecticides; and the effects of climate change.
The proposed listing would generally prohibit anyone from killing or transporting the butterfly. People and farmers could continue to remove milkweed, a key food source for monarch caterpillars, from their gardens, backyards and fields but would be prohibited from making changes to the land that make it permanently unusable for the species. Incidental kills resulting from vehicle strikes would be allowed, people could continue to transport fewer than 250 monarchs and could continue to use them for educational purposes. The USFWS is asking for public input on ways to reduce insecticide use.
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 Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) and other conservation groups petitioned the agency in 2014 to list the monarch as threatened. The agency launched a review of the butterfly's status at the end of 2014, concluding six years later that listing was warranted, but other species took priority. The CBD filed a federal lawsuit and won a settlement in 2022 that called for the government to decide whether to list monarchs by September 2024. The federal government secured an extension to December 2024.
The proposal to list the monarch butterfly and designate critical habitat, will be published in the Federal Register on December 12, 2024. A 90-day comment period will open on December 12, 2024 and will close on March 12, 2025. Information about how to submit comments can be found on Regulations.gov by searching for docket number FWS-R3-ES-2024-0137. This docket also includes information about how to attend two virtual public information meetings and associated public hearings about this listing proposal.