Federal officials say monarch butterflies need protection under the Endangered Species Act, but they won’t get it this year

Monarch butterflies are still many flights away from federal protection.

The popular black and orange butterflies were determined to be warranted for listing under the Endangered Species Act, but they’ll have to wait behind others with higher priority, according to a Tuesday decision from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The wildlife service intends to propose listing the monarch as an endangered or threatened species in 2024, if the insect is still found to need protection. In the meantime, the monarch’s status will be reviewed each year and an emergency listing is also possible.

“It is never good news when we find that listing an animal or a plant is warranted,” said Charlie Wooley, the service’s regional director for the Great Lakes in a Tuesday news conference. “It means there are tough challenges ahead. But a little bit of a silver lining with monarchs is that all of the efforts to conserve the species across North America have made and continue to make a big difference. ”

Monarchs’ populations dropped by hundreds of millions in the last 25 years, according to the wildlife service’s species status assessment report. The eastern population in North America, which supports about 90% of the population globally, is measured by the area the migratory monarchs occupy across winter clusters. Populations dipped from about 384 million in 1996 to 60 million last year. In 2013, they hit a low of 14 million.

The western population took a dive from about 1.2 million in 1997 to fewer than 30,000 butterflies last year. This year’s preliminary count shows there may be only 2,000 monarchs along California’s coast, said Lori Nordstrom, the wildlife service’s assistant regional director for ecological services.

To survive, the paper-thin insects must withstand drought, severe storms and rising temperatures, all exacerbated by human-fueled climate change. Insecticides are also a threat, as well as loss of milkweed and habitat — from herbicides, the conversion of grasslands to agriculture use, development and logging.

In the coming years, monarchs are expected to be more vulnerable to “catastrophic events” like severe storms and exposure to higher temperatures.

A national, coordinated effort is what’s ultimately needed to protect monarchs, said Tara Cornelisse, a senior scientist with The Center for Biological Diversity, which petitioned to have the monarch listed in 2014. Instead, the monarch is stuck in limbo.

“What we can do now is, unfortunately, we kind of just watch what happens,” Cornelisse said.

Significant recovery of the species isn’t expected, Cornelisse said, so there’s hope monarchs may still be listed — ideally before 2024. Forty-seven species have gone extinct while waiting for protection under the act, she said.

Nationally, there are 161 species on the candidate list ahead of monarchs.

The Trump administration has listed the fewest since the act took effect in 1973, according to The Associated Press. Only 25 species have been listed in recent years, while the Obama administration added 360.

TheTtrump administration has also made changes to the Endangered Species Act, which could have an effect on the monarch.

A mixed reaction to Tuesday’s news is fitting for a mixed decision, said Doug Stotz, a conservation ecologist at the Field Museum in Chicago.

Not getting listed is disappointing because insects don’t have other protections, Stotz said. “Most birds have protection under the Migratory Bird Act and will receive some protection. Basically, a monarch doesn’t have anything, like all insects. So lack of endangered species protection is potentially an issue.”

At the same time, this intermediary step indicates monarch protection is serious, while giving stakeholders time to develop voluntary plans, Stotz said.

Across generations of metamorphoses, the great- or great-great offspring of earlier monarchs fly all the way to the mountains of Mexico and head north again in the spring.

At this point, Stotz said he’s particularly concerned about the western population of monarchs, which could have received much needed attention from listing. “Last year we were shocked when it was only 30,000,” he said.

Advocates say collective efforts to help the butterfly are more important than ever.

“Monarch conservation continues to require an all-hands-on-deck approach in all sectors across the continent,” Nordstrom said. “From the smallest backyard garden to landscape scale conservation, it will take all of us to ensure the future of the monarch.”

Earlier this year, a group of stakeholders representing farms, cities, roadsides and natural areas signed on to the Illinois Monarch Action Plan, part of a larger regional effort to add 1.3 billion stems of milkweed, necessary for monarchs’ survival. Illinois aims to add 150 million stems of the state wildflower by 2038.

Ahead of the decision, some rights of way landowners signed on to voluntary agreements approved by the wildlife service in which they commit to a certain percentage of conservation actions on energy and transportation lands to support monarchs in exchange for not having to implement other conservation actions. For organizations that sign on, the agreements offer certainty that no more will be asked of them even if a species is formally listed.

“I think this listing decision provides that further confidence that some energy companies and transportation agencies need to know that this mechanism, this agreement is out there to provide them those regulatory assurances and the operational flexibility that they would need when, if, the species eventually is listed,” said Iris Caldwell, the project’s coordinator and a program manager at the University of Illinois at Chicago’s Energy Resources Center.

Scott Baumgartner planted milkweed all around his property in southwest Wisconsin after learning years ago that monarchs were in jeopardy.

Now, when he sees one of the butterflies, he sometimes remembers the photos his mother once sent, from a morning in her Texas town when monarchs covered everything in sight. By the next morning, they were gone.

“There were butterflies everywhere,” Baumgartner, of Lakeview, said. “Every single inch of bush, tree limb, there was a butterfly clinging to it. It was just unbelievable.”