Media contacts:
Emma Pelton, senior endangered species conservation biologist, Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, (503) 212-0706, [email protected]
Scott Hoffman Black, executive director, Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, (503) 449-3792, [email protected]
Sarina Jepsen, endangered species program director, Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, (971) 244-3727, [email protected]
Karen Oberhauser, professor emerita of department of entomology, University of Wisconsin-Madison; (651) 239-7542, [email protected]
Matt Forister, Trevor J. McMinn professor of biology, University of Nevada Reno; (775) 784-6770, [email protected]
Cheryl Schultz, professor of biology, Washington State University; (503) 307-5807, [email protected]
PORTLAND, Ore.; December 10, 2024—The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has proposed to list the monarch butterfly as a threatened species under the U.S. Endangered Species Act, as announced today. The butterfly is widely known for its continent-spanning migration and occurs in every U.S. state except Alaska.
This announcement came as the result of a listing petition submitted in 2014 by the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, the Center for Biological Diversity, the Center for Food Safety, and the late monarch scientist Lincoln Brower.
“We welcome this decision to protect monarchs as threatened under the Endangered Species Act,” said Sarina Jepsen, endangered species program director of the Xerces Society. “The recent counts from monarch overwintering sites in both Mexico and California have been extremely low, which underscores that monarchs need protection immediately. Sites that used to host tens of thousands of monarchs now have just a few butterflies.”
Scientists estimate that since monitoring began in the 1980s and 1990s, monarch butterflies have declined by approximately 80% in their eastern population and more than 95% in their western population. The overwintering area occupied by eastern monarchs in Mexico’s oyamel forests dropped to just 2.2 acres last winter, down from 5.4 acres the year prior and as much as 44.9 acres in the late 1990s. Early monitoring this fall by the Xerces Society at western monarchs overwintering groves in California suggests it will be the second lowest population year since the late 1990s.
“It may seem surprising that a species that many of us are used to seeing in our parks and gardens is in trouble, but the long-term data has shown that monarchs are in serious decline. We want to reverse that before it’s too late,” said Emma Pelton, a monarch conservation biologist with the Xerces Society. “The fact that monarchs spend their winters closely packed into small areas of forest in coastal California and central Mexico makes them especially vulnerable.”
The monarch faces many threats, including the loss of milkweed—the preferred plant its caterpillars eat—and other flowering plants across its range. Monarchs have also declined due to the degradation and loss of forests they rely on for winter shelter in both coastal California and Mexico, and the widespread use of pesticides in the environment. Many of these stressors are worsened by the effects of climate change.
“Monarchs fly up to 3,000 miles to complete their migration. They don’t quit, and neither will we until they are recovered,” said Scott Black, director of the Xerces Society. “This is an ‘all hands on deck’ conservation issue. The Xerces Society will continue working with everyone from farmers and ranchers, to managers of roadsides and energy infrastructure, to individual enthusiasts to restore monarch habitat and help these inspiring animals.”
Everyone can be a part of the solution to recover monarch butterflies. Visit xerces.org/monarchs to learn more about how to help.
The Fish and Wildlife Service will be hosting a virtual presentation for stakeholders to go over the proposal and take questions on Friday, December 13, at 3:00pm EST/12:00pm PT.
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Supporting quotes:
“The legal protection provided by the ESA will provide needed incentives to protect monarch habitat. I hope that it will also lead to even greater engagement of all sectors of society— individual land owners and managers, government agencies, educators, businesses, and non-profit organizations—across the entire breeding, migratory and overwintering range of this incredible insect." Karen Oberhauser, professor emerita at the University of Wisconsin-Madison
“We need to think about wide-ranging butterflies, and we need to make the ESA work better for insects in general. The monarch can be an important part of this change. It's not going to be easy, but to do nothing is a head-in-the-sand approach that doesn't serve anyone well.” Matt Forister, professor at the University of Nevada-Reno
“The ESA is a tremendous tool to bring species back from the brink of extinction. In my experience working with Fender’s blue butterfly over the last three decades, ESA listing provided the impetus to build partnerships across public and private lands, develop conservation efforts grounded in science, and find solutions that provide benefits across the community. These collective efforts have turned the tide for this recovering butterfly. I am optimistic that a comparable but much broader collective effort will turn the tide for monarch butterflies as well." – Cheryl Schultz, professor at Washington State University
Further Reading:
- The proposal to list the monarch butterfly and designate critical habitat will appear in the Federal Register on December 12, 2024. The entire proposed rule package can be found on regulations.gov by searching docket number FWS-R3-ES-2024-0137.
- US Fish and Wildlife Service announcement
- Xerces Society monarch efforts