Monarch butterflies now confront the Trump administration with its first big Endangered Species Act test, as a lively public comment period is set to end and the serious decisionmaking will begin.
With more than 105,000 opinions already logged in the comment period scheduled to end midnight Wednesday, the question of ESA protections for the regal species surpasses most other rulemakings in terms of public interest. The policy and political complexities are equally impressive.
“Monarch butterfly populations have continued to rapidly decline since we submitted our petition a decade ago,” Lori Ann Burd, environmental health director with the Center for Biological Diversity, said Tuesday.
Burd added that “now more than ever they need the FWS to do its job and list them under the Endangered Species Act so they can get the protections necessary to dodge extinction.”
