Your ability to raise your own monarch butterfly may soon vanish forever. Please read to learn what you can do to help them before March 12th.
Monarchs are likely to be listed as threatened later this year by the Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS). The listing designates critical habitat in California, to help the Western population, which is great! However, it does nothing to protect them from their main threats: pesticides, habitat loss, and climate change. Instead, they are planning on limiting butterfly farmers and individuals to only be able to raise 250 monarchs a year. With only a few dozen groups that know how to raise OE- and disease-free monarchs, and keep genetically diverse lines, this will essentially end the public’s ability to actively participate in Monarch conservation. You can still plant milkweed and nectar habitat, but the monarchs will be so limited that most people will no longer be able to help raise a monarch caterpillar or release an adult.
I raise monarchs and other butterflies on my farm, and I get hundreds of people every year who tell me they have a milkweed patch they’ve nurtured, but have never seen a monarch ever, or at least not for many years. I’m able to send them a small batch of OE-free larvae to kick start their local monarch population. We also have full monarch starter kits that come with a native milkweed plant for those that don't have their own milkweed yet. But this will likely be the last year I and many others will be able to if the limit of 250 monarchs per year is set with this listing. I want nothing more than for the monarch populations to improve, especially since I’m on the western side of the country where their numbers have dropped the most. But ignoring pesticides and habitat loss in favor of limiting experienced butterfly farmers is not the path forward.
As a small business, we are only a few people trying to bring the magic and wonder of butterflies to everyone. But we have thousands of customers, and YOU are the ones who can make the biggest difference. YOU can plant milkweed and nectar habitat, YOU can safely raise healthy monarchs across the whole nation, YOU can share this with others, and most importantly, right now, YOU can make a comment on the FWS website to let them know that you support monarch conservation, but you are against the proposed 250 annual limit on raising monarchs. Remember that pesticides and habitat loss are the main threats to monarchs, not people trying to raise them! The last day to comment is March 12th, so you must act now to make your voice heard and truly save the monarch butterfly. The link to the comment on the listing is HERE.
Monarchs are beautiful and inspiring creatures. They are an iconic symbol of how resilient, but also of how vulnerable nature is. If people and children can no longer fill their empty milkweed patches with these caterpillars, or release adults to celebrate nature, people may start to forget about them. And only then will they truly be in danger of going extinct.
Make your voice heard TODAY by commenting on the FWS website before March 12th and SHARE this post or the link below with someone else who cares about the monarchs: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2024/12/12/2024-28855/endangered-and-threatened-wildlife-and-plants-threatened-species-status-with-section-4d-rule-for#open-comment
