It’s now harder to see a monarch butterfly in California than it is to see a Starbucks.
After two years of record-setting lows of 30,000 butterflies, this year fewer than 2,000 of these orange-and-black beauties were counted in their winter groves.
The most recent population count shows a heartbreaking decline of 99.9% for monarchs west of the Rocky Mountains.
Eastern monarchs are struggling, too: Their population has declined by more than 80% over the past two decades.
Monarchs are dying off due to pesticides and habitat loss. Last year the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service agreed monarchs need protection, but the Trump administration did nothing — and the Biden administration is dragging its feet, too.
The Center is in an all-out race to save these butterflies.
We’re in court to secure the Endangered Species Act protection they need to survive. The Act was created for species like monarchs — there’s no more time to wait.
We’re urging Interior Secretary Deb Haaland to use her emergency authority under the Act to take immediate action for western monarchs.
And we’re pushing Congress to pass the MONARCH Act, which would allocate $25 million per year to help these butterflies recover.
With only 2,000 western monarchs counted overwintering this year, we can’t fathom what we might see — or not see — next year.
Earth is losing nearly a species an hour. More than 1 million species are on track to go extinct in the coming decades.
Media Release/Kierán Suckling
Executive Director
Center for Biological Diversity
