Inaction Threatens Already Imperiled Monarch Butterfly Populations

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service missing the deadline to list the monarch butterfly as threatened under the Endangered Species Act further imperils a species already facing precipitous decline. With nearly three decades of supportive science, the agency should swiftly list the monarch butterfly as threatened before it is too late.

"The Endangered Species Act is one of the most important, foundational conservation laws in our country and was created for exactly the situation facing the monarch butterfly," said Mike Leahy, senior director of wildlife, hunting and fishing policy at the National Wildlife Federation. "The only way we're going to recover the species and save it from extinction is by granting it the tailored conservation guidelines provided by a threatened designation. By delaying, we're driving both the Western and Eastern migratory monarch populations closer to the point of no return."

Find more information about the National Wildlife Federation's commitment to monarch conservation here: https://monarchs.nwf.org/.