| January 2021 |
Help plant the estimated 1.8 billion milkweed plants needed to save the monarchs.
It takes 2 or 3 generations of monarch butterflies to migrate from the mountains of Michoacán, Mexico, to the prairies of Illinois in the spring months. By late summer, a ‘super generation’ emerges, equipped to travel an estimated 2,500 miles back to Mexico for overwintering. Unfortunately, over the past 20 years, the eastern monarch butterfly population has faced a significant decline in migratory habitat.
On December 15th the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced its finding that “adding the monarch butterfly to the list of threatened and endangered species is warranted but precluded by work on higher-priority listing actions. With this decision, the monarch becomes a candidate for listing under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), and its status will be reviewed each year until it is no longer a candidate.”
The Illinois Monarch Project was formed in 2016 to establish a long-term action plan to enhance monarch butterfly reproduction and survival in Illinois. In collaboration with public and private partners and individuals across the state, the Action Plan has been adopted and the implementation phase has begun.
In light of the warranted-but-precluded decision it’s imperative that the voluntary habitat restoration and monarch butterfly population enhancements here in Illinois and across the 15 other states at the heart of the eastern monarch butterfly migration flyway continue in earnest.
This article is from the Illinois Sierra Prairie State Protector. Please contact hoi@illinoissierraclub.org for more local ways you can help.
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