In December 2025, the Associated Press reported that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) moved the monarch butterfly’s Endangered Species Act rulemaking from the “proposed rule stage” to “long-term action”. What does this mean for monarchs?
According to Monarch Joint Venture, the formal push to protect the monarch butterfly under the Endangered Species Act has been in the works for more than ten years. In August 2014, the Center for Biological Diversity, the Center for Food Safety, The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, and leading monarch researcher, Dr. Lincoln Brower, filed a petition with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS). This petition requested “that the Service list the monarch as a threatened species”. Fast forward to December 2024, when the USFWS published a proposed rule to list the monarch as threatened. Final rules are generally published within one year of the proposal. However, in this case, a final rule has not yet been published, and the status has been changed to “long-term action.” A final ruling had been expected in December 2025, one year after the proposed rule was published, as is customary. By moving the rule to long-term action, a final decision is not expected for at least another year.
While this delay is discouraging news for conservationists, our role as pollinator gardeners is clear: We’ll continue to support monarch conservation by creating pollinator habitat, participating in community science, and sharing information and advocating for pollinators. Join us!
