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Monarch butterfly would join 'threatened' species list under government proposal

AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says it wants to list the monarch butterfly as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act. If that goes through, the monarch would become one of the most widespread species to receive such federal protections. We're joined now by NPR science correspondent Jonathan Lambert for details on that and some other actions by Fish and Wildlife as the year draws to a close. Hi, Jonathan.

JONATHAN LAMBERT, BYLINE: Hi, Ayesha.

RASCOE: Can you tell us about what it means to have the monarch butterfly listed as threatened?

LAMBERT: Yeah, so under the Endangered Species Act, a species can get listed as either threatened or endangered. Endangered species are close to extinction, and so they get all these extra protections, like you can't kill an endangered species, and it becomes harder to build on their habitat. Here, the government is proposing listing the monarch as threatened, which means it's at risk of becoming endangered but not quite there yet. And that gives the government a little more wiggle room to tailor the protections that a species gets. In this case, monarchs got a lot of wiggle room and some pretty broad exceptions, especially for agriculture.

RASCOE: Tell us a bit more about the monarch and why they may need these protections.

LAMBERT: Monarchs have this really remarkable lifestyle where they make these long migrations over the course of several generations. Some travel up to thousands of miles from overwintering sites to breeding sites. That means they're basically found in every state, so they're not super rare. But over the past few decades, their numbers have dropped by 80- to 95%. A big factor in this is the loss of milkweed, which they need to fuel their migrations. And because of farming, there's just a lot less of it these days. And pesticide use and climate change are also behind their decline.

RASCOE: So you mentioned that monarch butterflies are proposed as threatened, not endangered, and the decision has some wiggle room. How would listing them as threatened help?

LAMBERT: Yeah, so this proposed listing would protect some key habitat along California's coast and make it harder to build in certain other places that monarchs live. But a lot wouldn't change under this proposal. Like, if you're driving down the highway and happen to accidentally hit a monarch, relax, you won't be committing a crime. And farming is mostly unaffected, too, so a farmer doesn't have to worry about clearing milkweed from their field.

RASCOE: What's been the reaction to this proposal?

LAMBERT: Overall, biologists are pretty excited. They think this will do a lot to protect these butterflies without being too restrictive on a species that's found basically in the whole United States. And more broadly, they hope it just raises awareness about the monarch's plight. Because they're so widespread, individual people can really make a difference by doing something as simple as just planting milkweed in your backyard.

RASCOE: So monarchs were the big news, but I understand there were some other species proposed for listing.

LAMBERT: Yeah, my favorite of the other species is the eastern hellbender. This is the largest salamander in North America. They can grow up to two feet long, and they live for up to 30 years in streams and rivers in the Eastern U.S. But they're super sensitive to water quality, and pollution and soil erosion have hurt their habitat over the past few decades. Unfortunately, they're also a hot commodity for the pet trade. In fact, the government declined to get too specific about protecting certain areas because they don't want people to know where they are and then nab them.

RASCOE: That's kind of crazy because I looked up these eastern hellbenders, and I would not want that as a pet. But anything else that came out from Fish and Wildlife Service?

LAMBERT: Yeah, some other critters got flagged for extra protections, too, including a species of cuckoo bumblebee that lives out West and four Caribbean lizards and some giraffes, which obviously don't live in the U.S., but listing them could cut down on their trafficking.

RASCOE: Wow. Protections for giraffes - so what happens next?

LAMBERT: So the public has several months to comment, and then after that, the Fish and Wildlife Service works on drafting up final rules, which can take about a year. Of course, the incoming administration casts a bit of uncertainty around the fate of these critters, and that's because the first Trump administration weakened the power and scope of the Endangered Species Act, and some conservation advocates worry that they could do the same thing this time around.

RASCOE: That's NPR's Jonathan Lambert. Jonathan, thank you so much.

LAMBERT: Thank you, Ayesha. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

Ayesha Rascoe is a White House correspondent for NPR. She is currently covering her third presidential administration. Rascoe's White House coverage has included a number of high profile foreign trips, including President Trump's 2019 summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Hanoi, Vietnam, and President Obama's final NATO summit in Warsaw, Poland in 2016. As a part of the White House team, she's also a regular on the NPR Politics Podcast.
Jonathan Lambert is a correspondent for NPR's Science Desk, where he covers the wonders of the natural world and how policy decisions can affect them.