Feds put off tough ESA decision on monarch butterfly

In the story by Politico/E&E News, Monarch Watch Director Kristen Baum is interviewed in this follow-up story posted one year after the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed listing the monarch butterfly as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. 

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The Fish and Wildlife Service will miss by well over a country mile its deadline for deciding whether to protect the monarch butterfly under the Endangered Species Act.

One year after its Dec. 12, 2024, proposal to list the monarch as threatened, the federal agency indicated that a final decision is at least nine more months away.

“The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service continues to evaluate the monarch butterfly using the best available science and in accordance with all requirements of the Endangered Species Act,” an agency spokesperson said in a statement issued Thursday afternoon, adding that “the administration remains committed to a regulatory approach that is transparent, predictable, and grounded in sound science.”

...  See full story (has paywall).