Under terms of a settlement, the Interior Department will rule by June 30, 2019, whether the monarch butterfly, which has suffered a huge drop in population, deserves protection under the Endangered Species Act, said two environmental groups. The groups say without help, the well-known orange-and-black insect is at risk of extinction.
The Center for Biological Diversity and the Center for Food Safety petitioned the government in 2014 to put the butterfly on the endangered list and sued in March to force the Interior Department to respond. Under the agreement, Interior has three years to decide if it will propose protection for the butterfly, deny the petition or put the monarch on its “candidate” waiting list for protection.
Activists say the monarch butterfly is imperiled throughout its habitat. Widespread use of the weedkiller glyphosate has greatly reduced milkweed, the monarch’s food source, in the Midwest, and logging is a threat to the butterfly’s winter grounds in Mexico.