Message to the Fish and Wildlife Service:

I am writing to thank the Fish and Wildlife Service for your efforts to protect the Monarch butterfly and to urge you to finalize your proposal to grant Monarchs threatened status under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). As your analysis clearly shows, there is a foreseeable risk that both the western and eastern Monarch populations will become extinct. ESA protections are urgently needed to help this amazing butterfly recover and prosper.

FWS has recognized that pesticides are a major factor in the Monarch’s quarter-century decline. Herbicides like glyphosate decimate the Monarch’s primary host plant, common milkweed, in agricultural lands throughout much of its Midwestern breeding range. Drift-prone herbicides like dicamba kill flowering plants adult Monarch require for nectar. Neonicotinoid seed treatments of corn, soybeans, and other crops can poison Monarchs during planting operations or through contamination of the nectar of field-edge plants. I urge the Service to abstain from exempting agricultural use of pesticides in the monarch’s listing rule.

The Service should also establish critical habitat for the more numerous eastern population, whose range extends across the country east of the Rocky Mountains. Last year’s population reached the second-lowest level ever recorded, capping a quarter-century decline of over 80%. Please provide protected habitat to give eastern Monarchs a chance to recover.

Thanks for your consideration and your efforts to save this iconic butterfly.