MADISON, Wis. (AP) — U.S. wildlife officials announced a decision Tuesday to extend federal protections to monarch butterflies after years of warnings from environmentalists that populations are shrinking and the beloved pollinator may not survive climate change.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service plans to add the butterfly to the threatened species list by the end of next year following an extensive public comment period.
“The iconic monarch butterfly is cherished across North America, captivating children and adults throughout its fascinating life cycle,” U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director Martha Williams said in a news release. “Despite its fragility, it is remarkably resilient, like many things in nature when we just give them a chance.”
The Endangered Species Act affords extensive protections to species the wildlife service lists as endangered or threatened. Under the act, it’s illegal to import, export, possess, transport or kill an endangered species. A threatened listing allows for exceptions to those protections.
In the monarch’s case, 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.
I’ve murdered thousands of these butterflies irl, AMA.
During my undergrad, I assisted a Doctoral candidate who was researching Monarch flight mechanics. As a part of the experimentation, I had to occasionally cull colonies when they caught bacterial infections. It was heartbreaking and I hated it. I would never do it again.
