Conservation groups say they’re planning to sue the federal government if it doesn’t extend Endangered Species Act protections to the monarch butterfly.
The Center for Biological Diversity and the Center for Food Safety have filed a notice of intent to sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The two groups say the federal agency was supposed to decide by last month whether to add the monarch to the Endangered Species List.
Barb Agnew of Friends of the Monarch Trail, a Wisconsin group, said she supports pressuring the government to announce a decision.
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“If we don’t get some very, very big measures in place soon, it’s not going to be enough,” Agnew said. “It’s going to be too little, too late.”
Scientists say there’s been an 80 percent decline in the monarch’s population over the last few decades. The USFWS has said it’s put millions more dollars into conservation projects to help the butterfly species, but advocates say that’s not enough.
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