Regulation Poses Biggest Threat to Monarch Butterflies

By Angela Logomasini of CEI. Excerpt:

"Unfortunately, private efforts to create habitat for the butterflies could come to a halt if the federal government decides it needs to step in and list the monarch as an endangered species under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Some environmental groups have petitioned the Department of Interior to list the species as endangered. Once a species is listed, regulations may apply to its habitat, and the costs to farmers and other property owners can be substantial. Such costs and regulations discourage people from creating and maintaining habitat for endangered species. And in extreme cases, people will destroy habitat to avoid potential regulations.

And one Texas butterfly enthusiast points out:

According to the 159-page petition’s final line, if “threatened” status is approved, such activities would be a crime.  People like me and you will be allowed to raise “fewer than ten Monarchs per year by any individual, household or educational entity”–unless that activity is “overseen by a scientist, conservation organization, or other entity dedicated to the conservation of the species.”

It is ironic that an allegedly pro-species law would erode the butterfly’s habitat by potentially punishing people for creating habitat by planting and cultivating milkweed, which the butterflies need to breed. Monarch butterflies lay eggs on the milkweed, which hatch and grow into caterpillars that eat milkweed, which is poisonous. The poisons in the milkweed make the caterpillars poisonous to many potential predators.

Over the summer in the United States and Canada, these butterflies breed several generations on milkweed, with most butterflies living just a few weeks. But at the end of the summer, the last generation lives months so that it can migrate all the way to Mexico or California locations where it overwinters and then flies back north in the spring to continue the cycle.

Environmental activists blame herbicides for monarch population declines because farmers have used them to eliminate milkweed plants, but it’s not the chemicals that are the problem. Farmers need to remove all kinds of weeds—without or without herbicides—so they can plant crops to feed people. Herbicides not only make that process easier for farmers, they also reduce the need to remove weeds by tilling, which causes erosion, runoff, and soil depletion. So overall, herbicides are environmentally beneficial. And milkweed is poisonous and can kill livestock if they graze amongst it or if it gets into hay or other feed for the animals."