Monarch butterfly not yet labeled endangered
Other species have greater need, US Fish and Wildlife says
SANTA CRUZ >> The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced Tuesday that the monarch butterfly is eligible to be listed under the Endangered Species Act, but that the agency would not propose a rule to do so until 2024.
If at that time the beloved insect, whose numbers in recent years have plummeted locally in Santa Cruz and across the Central Coast, will be reassessed for listing.
If monarch numbers are still on the decline, the agency will propose an endangered species listing. If that rule passes, the iconic butterfly could be categorized as an endangered species in 2025.
That timeline, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, was established because other dwindling species take higher priority in the endangerment listing process.
“We conducted an intensive, thorough review using a rigorous, transparent science-based process and found that the monarch meets listing criteria under the Endangered Species Act,” Fish and Wildlife Service Director Aurelia Skipwith said in a press conference. “However, before we can propose listing, we must focus resources on our higher-priority listing actions.”
The butterflies are the only species of their kind to make transcontinental migrations like birds do. Their population numbers have dropped nationally in the last decades. The federal agency attributes that decline to climate change, and associated weather events, as well as increased use of insecticides, and destruction of milkweed plants.
Another issue locally is the increased development of overwintering sites.
Environmentalists are voicing concerns that the listing delay could have brutal impacts on already-withering population numbers.
“On the one hand, I’m happy that the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service has warranted that monarchs deserve listing,” said Sarina Jepsen, director of endangered species at the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation. “Yet the decision today essentially provides no meaningful protections, and our western monarch butterfly population cannot wait.”
Tuesday’ s decision comes after decades-long battles to list the butterfly as endangered.
Charlie Wooley, head of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’ s Great Lakes regional office, said that emergency action could be taken if warranted.
T he monarch’s status will be reassessed annually, Wooley said.
According to the Xerces Society, the population of Western Monarchs, those that flock to Santa Cruz eucalyptus groves, has reached historic lows this year.
The group’ s annual Thanksgiving Count, which is 95% completed, documented only 1,800 monarchs across California migratory sites.
In the last couple of years, the group documented 30,000 monarchs across the state. In 2015 that figure was tenfold.
“To have less than 2,000 monarchs this year is heartbreaking and it underscores the urgent need for monarchs to be given actual protection,” Jepsen said .“We’ re looking at a future where people in the Western U.S. don’t experience monarchs.”
In the last couple of years, the group documented 30,000 monarchs across the state. In 2015 that figure was tenfold.