The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is expected to decide whether to protect the monarch butterfly under the Endangered Species Act within the next two weeks.
The service could choose to list the iconic orange and black butterfly as endangered or threatened, or take no action at this time.
Rebeca Quinonez-Pinon, monarch recovery strategist and climate resilient habitat director for the National Wildlife Federation, said the western monarch has declined by more than 90% from historical levels.
"We have to act," Quinonez-Pinon urged. "This is the moment when we must, if not reverse, at least stop the serious decline of many other insect pollinators."
The annual western monarch butterfly count is currently underway with three major campaigns running through January. Last year, experts estimated the population at around 233,000, compared with 4.5 million which used to migrate up the California coast each winter in the 1980s. The species has declined because of habitat loss to development, pesticides, disease and climate change.
Mary Phillips, head of native plant habitat strategy for the National Wildlife Federation, encouraged home gardeners to plant native milkweed, the only plant monarch caterpillars can eat.
"If you can put a good percentage of milkweed plants in those gardens, balanced with three season bloom of asters and goldenrod species, that can provide nectar to the adult monarchs," Phillips explained. "It's really helpful."
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service first began considering whether to list the monarch butterfly in 2014, so the decision is a decade in the making.
