Fewer than 2000 western monarch butterflies are left
In the 1980s, there were 4.5 million western monarch butterflies; last year, there were fewer than 2,000.1
The western monarch butterfly faces extinction.
If the western monarch’s population continues to collapse, this iconic pollinator — whose migrations have awed generations — could disappear for good. This is an emergency — and members of Congress are calling on Interior Secretary Deb Haaland to use her emergency authority under the Endangered Species Act to save the western monarch now.
We need to tell Secretary Haaland today to treat this decline as the emergency it is and save the western monarch.
It was once a remarkable sight to see.
They would cluster in forest groves along California’s coast. Then, after spending winter clinging to trunks and branches in the trees’ dappled light, the western monarchs would take flight. Clouds of butterflies would darken the sky and fill the air with the sound of millions of wings fluttering at once.
Their springtime migration would lead them across California and to states across the western United States. By summer, their journey would end on the milkweed plant — the only plants their caterpillars can eat.2
But the great orange clouds of western monarch butterflies that once filled California’s springtime air have mostly disappeared. In 40 years, their population has dropped by 99 percent.3
And if we don’t act soon, they will disappear forever. Secretary Haaland has the power to save them — let’s tell her to use it.
It’s not too late to help save monarch butterflies.
These beautiful butterflies are pressed on all sides.
Extensive human use of glyphosate-based pesticides has decimated milkweed plants across the country, leaving caterpillars to go hungry. Compounding this problem is climate change, which disrupts their migration patterns and destroys their habitats with worsening wildfires.4
Together, these factors pose an existential crisis to the western monarchs.
Still, it’s not too late. If we treat this situation like the emergency it is, we can help save the western monarchs, and their magnificent migration, for future generations.
- Erin McCormick, “Western monarch butterflies are nearly extinct. California has a plan to save them,” The Guardian, June 4, 2021.
- “About,” Western Monarch Count, last accessed July 21, 2021.
- Farah Eltohamy, “Monarch butterflies denied endangered species listing despite shocking decline,” National Geographic, December 15, 2020.
- Erin McCormick, “Western monarch butterflies are nearly extinct. California has a plan to save them,” The Guardian, June 4, 2021.