If we want future generations to live in a world that still has Monarchs, we have to act now.
Monarchs play a crucial role in regulating our ecosystems and pollinating plants — including the crops we rely on for food. Indeed, one out of every three bites of food we eat is thanks to pollinators like the Monarch butterfly. Without pollinators, our entire food web could unravel.
After two years of record-setting lows of 30,000 and less Western Monarch butterflies (2018/19), this past year (2020) fewer than 2,000 of these orange-and-black beauties were counted in their winter groves.
The most recent population count shows a heartbreaking decline of 99.9% for Monarchs who are dying off due to pesticides and habitat loss. Last year the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service agreed Monarchs need protection, but our government hasn’t acted yet and is saying that Monarchs won’t be put on the endangered list until 2024. That will be too late.
In March and June of this year, the MONARCH Act (S.809 Monarch Action, Recovery, and Conservation of Habitat Act (ARCH) of 2021) and S.806 The Monarch and Pollinators Highway (PH) Act were introduced in the Senate, but have not yet been voted on. These acts would provide millions of dollars a year to protect and save the Western Monarch butterfly. The MONARCH ARCH Act and the MONARCH PH Act both need to be brought to the Senate floor for a full Senate vote.
We urge you to contact our Senators: Diane Feinstein and Alex Padilla, and ask them to make the MONARCH Act and The Monarch and Pollinator Highway Act a priority!
Senator Diane Feinstein: (202) 224-3841, Senator Alex Padilla: (202) 224-3553
We also ask that you contact our Representative in the House, Mike Thompson, and ask that the Western Monarch be protected NOW! There are two bills: The Monarch and Pollinator Highway Act and The MONARCH Act (House Bill USHB.1983). Congressman Thompson is a co-sponsor of these bills. Call Congressman Thompson and thank him for his support. And ask that these bills be brought to the House floor NOW for a vote. Congressman Mike Thompson: (202) 225-3311
Also contact the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and Secretary of the Interior, and urge them to put the Western Monarch on the Endangered Species list NOW and provide funds and protections to save these insects! Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland: (202) 208-3100 and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service: Lori Marshall – Office of Public Affairs Office (703) 358-2541
SUGGESTED SCRIPT for Senators and Representative: “I am calling from the Monarch Milkweed Project organization here in the California San Francisco Bay Area. We are a group of local citizens working to plant Milkweed all around Solano County in order to save and propagate the Western Monarch. We thank you for co-sponsoring the two Monarch Acts that are working their way through Congress. The Western Monarch count in 2020 was less than 2000 butterflies and this butterfly should be put on the Endangered Species List NOW and protected. If pollinators like butterflies and bees go extinct this will severely affect our crops and our food supply not to mention that these beautiful butterflies will be missed by all. Please help bring the MONARCH Action, Recovery, and Conservation of Habitat Act of 2021 and the Monarch Pollinators and Highway Act to a floor vote NOW. This is urgent and cannot wait. Thank you for your time.”
SUGGESTED SCRIPT for U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and for Secretary Deb Haaland’s office:
“I am calling from the Monarch Milkweed Project organization here in the California San Francisco Bay Area. We are a non-profit organization of local citizens working to plant Milkweed all around Solano County in order to save and propagate the Western Monarch. The Western Monarch count in 2020 was less than 2000 butterflies and this butterfly should be put on the Endangered Species List NOW and protected. If pollinators like butterflies and bees go extinct this will severely affect our crops and our food supply not to mention that these beautiful butterflies will be missed by all. Please do not wait but use your authority to save these insects now. This is urgent and cannot wait. Thank you for your time.”
Please also encourage your friends and all who love the Western Monarch Butterfly to call these numbers. The more of us who call the more likely they will take swift action. Thank you.