The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service last week agreed to issue a final listing determination for monarch butterflies by June 6, 2030, a news release announced.
The orange-and-black butterflies were set to be protected as threatened under the Endangered Species Act in December 2025, but the Trump administration did not finalize protections for them.
That led to a lawsuit from the Center for Biological Diversity and Center for Food Safety, which last week’s agreement satisfies.
“Monarchs are migrating south right now bringing joy to everyone who sees them, but punting their protection for years magnifies the risk that we could lose these migratory wonders,” Tierra Curry, endangered species co-director at the Center for Biological Diversity, said in the release. “Butterflies are the latest victims of the dumpster fire this administration is trying to make of the Endangered Species Act.”
Monarchs have declined by more than 80% since the 1990s. They were proposed for Endangered Species Act protection in 2024, but instead of finalizing protections, Trump officials delayed the decision as a “long-term action,” with no definitive date for listing. The Center for Biological Diversity and Center for Food Safety filed a lawsuit in February to secure a date for final protections.
A federal assessment of the monarch’s status found that in the next 60 years eastern monarchs have up to a 74% chance of going extinct and western monarchs have up to a 99% chance of being lost forever, the release stated.
This year’s overwintering eastern population covered only 7.24 acres of forests in Mexico, which is less than half the size needed to be above the risk of migratory collapse. Monarch butterflies west of the Rocky Mountains overwinter mostly on the central coast of California. The western migratory population is down more than 95% since the 1980s and numbered less than 12,260 butterflies this past winter, the third lowest count on record, according to the release.
Conservationists first sought federal safeguards for the butterflies in 2014 when the Center for Biological Diversity, Center for Food Safety, Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation and renowned monarch scientist Lincoln Brower filed a scientific and legal petition with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service seeking protection for the butterflies as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. The butterflies were placed on a candidate waiting list for protection in 2020.
