Lawsuit Seeks Stronger Protections for Monarch Butterflies

A battle is brewing to help save the monarch butterfly. Over the past 30 years, the North American monarch butterfly population has declined by over 80%. In 2024, the pollinators were designated as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, but no federal protections have been provided. To learn more about the preservation of monarch butterflies, we are joined by Tierra Curry, a senior scientist with the center for Biological Diversity. Thank you so much for joining us, Miss Curry. Thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to talk about monarch butterflies. Well, can you tell us how special and wonderful the monarch butterfly is? What makes it unique? So monarchs are so lovely. They're the graceful orange and black butterflies. They're familiar to a lot of people from childhood, from watching them metamorphose. They're found in 48 states. So they're a very common. They were a very common butterfly that are just special to a lot of people, and I love them. My favorite thing in summer is to walk around my yard and look for monarch butterflies, but unfortunately, they're in really big trouble. They've declined by more than 80%, and they were proposed for Endangered Species Act protection at the end of 2024. But that protection wasn't finalized. So the center for Biological Diversity, where I'm a senior scientist, filed a lawsuit last week to get a binding date for finalizing that protection. What has led to the delay in getting the species, the federal protection that it deserves? Really bureaucratic foot dragging. There's so much going on in the world today, as everyone knows. And so we don't tend to prioritize protecting nature and looking out for ecosystems. And so that's why we filed the lawsuit so that there will be a binding date to make a decision on finalizing their protection. And what exactly do you hope to accomplish with the lawsuit? So once monarchs gain Endangered Species Act protection, which it's already been, it's already been proposed. So we know that they qualify for it. Once they gain it, they'll get a comprehensive recovery plan for how to recover the populations. And they'll get ongoing funding to do things like plant milkweed, restore habitat, do more research onto the migrations, and hopefully provide connected habitat corridors so that when they make their incredible journey from Canada all the way to Mexico, they have a safe route to travel. Now, in your lawsuit, you claim there's a 74% chance that the eastern monarch could go extinct. And what would happen to places like Florida if that happens? So that's for the species status assessment that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service prepared in response to the Endangered Species Act listing petition that we filed. So they found that there's up to a 74% chance that we could lose the eastern population. Florida actually is special and that there are two groups of monarchs there. The eastern migratory population passes through Florida on their way to Mexico, and then on their way north again. South Florida has a resident population of monarch butterflies. And so those butterflies just live in South Florida year round and don't migrate at all. So we're lucky in that respect. Now not a yeah, not a single plant or animal was protected under the Endangered Species Act. And this hasn't happened since 1981. How optimistic are you that something can actually be done to help monarch butterflies this year? This year? I'm not optimistic, but down the road, I am optimistic that monarchs will get the protection that they need. And meanwhile, people can help monarchs in so many ways by planting native flowers, planting native milkweed. It's really important, especially in Florida, not to plant tropical milkweed, which is invasive and which isn't healthy for the monarchs because it harbor spores of this parasite that interferes with metamorphosis. So in South Florida, people should pull out their tropical milkweed only, plant native milkweed, and cut that milkweed down at the end of September, it will grow back from the roots. But that will help reduce the parasite load that unfortunately, a lot of monarchs in South Florida, had this parasite called OIE that is pretty unhealthy and is harbored on the tropical milkweed. What are all the challenges that the monarch butterflies are facing in building their populations? And and also, what about pesticides and insecticides? What impact is that having on their population? It's really so a lot of people think that pesticides or insecticides only harm the bugs that they're trying to kill, but actually they harm all insects. And in America, we just use too many pesticides. In general, there's like other solutions, there's integrated pest management. There's tons of resources on the web about how to use fewer pesticides or no pesticides in your yard. And a lot of times people try to help monarchs by planting ornamental milkweed or other plants, but if they have a little tag on them that says they've been protected from aphids, that means they've been treated with neonicotinoid insecticides, and those are harmful to the pollinators that people are planting them to try to help. So it's better to look for organic and native plants. It's good information. Now in southwest Florida, we have, so much development going on. What impact does development have on monarchs who use Florida as a path towards Mexico during their migrations? So think about how many roads a monarch butterfly has to cross to get from Canada to Mexico. So roadkill is actually a serious conservation concern for monarchs. And the other thing with development is a lot of times the plants that people put in are non-native plants and they're treated with pesticides that are harmful to monarch. So doing pollinator friendly landscaping is a really important consideration. When areas are developed. So what advice would you give to anyone watching or listening about what they can do to help protect these beautiful butterflies right now? What is within our control? That's why they they say that monarchs are a gateway bug, because a lot of people want to help them, and helping them will help lots of other imperiled insects and pollinators. And so not using pesticides, planting native plants, planting a variety of flowers that bloom from spring through fall so that when the monarchs are migrating, they can get the nectar that they need, even putting down like a bottle of water with the rocks in it and changing that every day, will give pollinators and butterflies and bees a place to drink water. And you can set up a monarch waystation. There's, lots of instructions online about how to help pollinators. The Florida Wildlife Foundation has a whole page about monarchs and Florida, and what to plan for them and how to help them, because that's wonderful. It sounds like we all can do some small part. Absolutely. Thank you so much for joining us today, Miss Curry. Thank you for the information. Thanks for covering monarchs.