Pesticide companies are driving monarchs to extinction

Last year monarchs faced record declines for the second year in a row.

In 1997, there were nearly 1.2 million monarchs sighted. But in 2019, scientists found only 29,418 of the butterflies across 240 habitats. A key contributor to their decline is glyphosate – a.k.a. Monsanto’s Roundup®

The Director of Fish and Wildlife, Aurelia Skipwith, is a former Monsanto executive. And her agency just announced that it’s putting monarch conservation in the hands of corporations rather than taking action.

Monarchs need Endangered Species protections, not Trump administration partnerships with corporations. But the Fish and Wildlife Service will only protect these iconic butterflies if they hear from you!

Help these butterflies. They are being driven to extinction: The Fish and Wildlife Service must give them Endangered Species Act protections! 

What was previously a roaring river of butterflies migrating to Mexico every year has now become a trickle.

Habitat loss and pesticide use have been decimating monarchs across the country. Monarchs’ migration takes them right over the Corn Belt, where Big Ag is wiping out milkweed, the only food source for young caterpillars, with Monsanto’s RoundUp®. The rampant overuse of pesticides has driven them to the brink of extinction.

Because these butterflies are essential pollinators for various wild plants that are also facing decline, their extinction could cause a horrific ripple effect. Already fragile ecosystems will be faced with further degeneration.

Monarchs are teetering on the edge of collapse. But the Fish and Wildlife Service has the power to stop this decline in its tracks. Partnering with major corporations is just a band-aid, but listing monarchs as an   endangered species is the cure!

The loss of pollinators is happening around the country and around the world. And the Trump administration is taking half-measures when the solution is right in front of them.

Every day the Fish and Wildlife Service fails to act, monarchs are pushed closer to extinction. We must show the groundswell of grassroots support for protecting monarchs!