Tell the FWS: Protect the milkweed that monarchs rely on

The majestic monarch butterfly that we know and love is in trouble. To save these important pollinators, we need to provide critical protections for the milkweed they rely on, including a native species located in Texas that's slipping toward extinction. TAKE ACTION

The majestic monarch butterfly that we know and love is in trouble.

Over the past several decades, development, wildfires and pervasive pesticide use have made the eastern monarchs' habitat largely unlivable and their main food source scarce. As a result, these 3-inch butterflies are hungry and longing for a place to rest as they migrate thousands of miles to their overwintering grounds each year.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) has the power to help save the monarchs by providing critical protections for the prostrate milkweed, a rare type of milkweed in southern Texas that these important pollinators rely on as they journey south.

Add your name in support of listing prostrate milkweed under the Endangered Species Act before the end of the public comment period on April 18 to ensure these majestic creatures continue to grace our skies long into the future.

When monarchs take flight together, their beauty knows no bounds. Fluttering their stained-glass wings, they float from flowers to treetops, coming together to rest in clusters called "roosts."

In winter, monarch butterflies stay huddled tightly together in their roosts to maintain warmth. But as milkweed -- monarchs' main food source -- disappears, these roosts are thinning.

Eastern monarchs undertake as much as a 3,000 mile journey between central Mexico and their summering locations in our backyards.1

With their numbers down by 80% in the past few decades, these delicate creatures need every bit of help we can give. That's why it's critical that we save the prostrate milkweed -- a key native species located along their migratory path.2

Right now, the FWS has the chance to help save the monarchs, but only if it protects the precious milkweed these beautiful butterflies rely on. Add your name in support of listing prostrate milkweed under the Endangered Species Act today.

A monarch caterpillar has fewer than three weeks to eat all the milkweed it can before it spins its chrysalis and prepares for one of the longest, yet most active, naps of a monarch's life.3

Crawling from stem to stem looking for food, the monarch caterpillars' search for nutrients has become increasingly futile. With scarce milkweed, these caterpillars might not make it to their first flight.

But you can help change that. Establishing critical protections for the prostrate milkweed will help ensure eastern monarch butterflies have a safe branch to land on and monarch caterpillars don't go hungry.

Will you help save monarchs today?

Thank you,

David Masur
Director

1. "Migration and Overwintering," U.S. Forest Service, last accessed March 1, 2022.
2. Matt Davenport, "Why is the eastern monarch butterfly disappearing?," MSU Today, July 19, 2021.
3. "Restoring monarch butterfly habitat in the Midwestern US: 'all hands on deck'," City of Irving, last accessed February 21, 2022.