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Congresswoman Debbie Dingell (MI-06), co-chair of the Endangered Species Act Caucus, released the following statement in support of today’s U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposal to list the monarch butterfly as threatened under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) with species-specific protections to promote its conservation. 

“The monarch butterfly is at risk of extinction, and we need to take immediate action to protect this iconic species. The Endangered Species Act is among the most effective conservation legislation ever passed, and its protections are crucial to conserving the species we know and love, like the monarch,” Dingell said. “I encourage everyone to submit a comment in support of this proposal to protect the monarch for generations to come.” 

For more than 50 years, the ESA has been an effective catalyst for on-the-ground collaborative conservation, promoting the recovery of wildlife and conserving the habitats upon which they depend. This proposed rule will help build on and enhance monarch conservation efforts while balancing activities in support of economic growth.

With its notable orange and black markings, the monarch butterfly is one of the most recognizable insects in the world. In North America, monarchs are grouped into two long-distance migratory populations. The eastern migratory population is the largest and overwinters in the mountains of central Mexico. The western migratory population primarily overwinters in coastal California. In the 1980s, over 4.5 million western monarchs flocked to overwintering grounds in coastal California. In the mid-1990s, an estimated 380 million eastern monarchs made the long-distance journey to overwintering grounds in Mexico, completing one of the longest insect migrations in the world. 

Today, the eastern migratory population is estimated to have declined by approximately 80%. The western migratory population has declined by more than 95% since the 1980s, putting the western populations at greater than 99% chance of extinction by 2080. During this same period, the probability of extinction for eastern monarchs ranges from 56 to 74%, according to the Service’s most recent species status assessment.

Learn more here.