Efforts to protect monarch butterfly set in motion following this year’s sharp decline in the population

SANTA BARBARA COUNTY, Calif.—This past month only 4 butterflies have been counted in Goleta’s Ellwood Mesa area. Last month that number was 34.

Many researchers say climate change is to blame, but now another culprit has been identified— pesticides.

“Because the monarch is migratory because it exists over such a wide area and has spends different parts of its lifecycle in different parts of the country. Pesticide exposure is an issue across all types of landscapes. That includes agriculture for sure, but also urban and residential land use,” said Director of Conservation Policy Rosemary Malfi.

Tuesday a petition was submitted to the Environmental Protection Agency to swiftly correct flaws in its framework for assessing pesticide risks to pollinators like the monarch.

This comes on the heels of last week’s proposal by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to list the monarch butterfly as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.

“In its proposed listing rule, the Fish and Wildlife Service says we know insecticides and herbicides are a big threat to monarch populations, but the service is actually unable to speak to the exact nature and extent of that threat,” said Earth Justice Biodiversity Defense Program attorney Sharmeen Morrison.

Rosemary Malfi says the current framework in place only accounts for the impact of pesticides on honeybees. But she adds not all pollinators are created equal. 

Monarch caterpillars are 500 times more sensitive to dynamite insecticides as a particular class of insecticides than than bees are,” said Director of Conservation Policy Rosemary Malfi.

Environmentalists say the EPA underestimates the toll pesticides have on the monarch butterfly, and they are lagging behind more progressive countries.

“The European Food Safety Authority is already asking pesticide manufacturers to submit data on pesticide impacts to butterflies, moths, bumblebees and solitary bees and pesticide manufacturers in Europe are already complying,” said Morrison.

If signed, researchers say it will be the first of many steps that can reverse the downward trend of this critical butterfly population and that it will lead to critical improvements in both agricultural and residential spaces.