One reason for increasing the number of Midwestern native prairies is to support the migration of monarch butterflies. The importance of these efforts continues to grow as the monarch population continues to decline.
The US Fish & Wildlife Service most recent assessment showed that monarch butterfly populations have declined by 80% to the east of the Rocky Mountains and over 95% to the west, since the 1980s. This has a great cost: by 2080, the western population has a 99% chance of extinction and the eastern population has a 56-74% chance of extinction. These statistics illustrate how imperative habit preservation and other conservation efforts are to the existence of entire species.
Unfortunately, a decision on the proposal to list monarch butterflies as threatened has been delayed. According the Associated Press, instead of moving monarchs to the threatened species list by the end of 2026 as planned, the Trump administration changed the effort to a “long-term action.” This does not mean that the proposal has been blocked, but a final decision cannot be made within the year.
As the situation grows more extreme, and with delays in governmental protections, creating new habitats only becomes more pressing.
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