EPA Abuse Ahead

Leading Scientists, Over 200 Groups and Companies Call for Monarch Protection

Posted on November 14, 2014 Written by Press release, enewspf.com

FA note:  List­ing the Monarch but­ter­fly under the Endan­gered Species Act would have a sig­nif­i­cant impact over much of the United States, espe­cially con­sid­er­ing their fall migra­tion pattern. 

Broad Coali­tion Sup­ports Peti­tion to Pro­tect Monarch But­ter­flies as Threat­ened under Endan­gered Species Act

WASHINGTON—(ENEWSPF)–November 13, 2014. In the face of stag­ger­ing declines of mon­archs, more than 40 lead­ing monarch sci­en­tists and ecol­o­gists and more than 200 orga­ni­za­tions and busi­nesses today urged Sec­re­tary of the Inte­rior Sally Jew­ell to pro­tect these but­ter­flies under the Endan­gered Species Act. Today’s let­ters come in sup­port of a for­mal peti­tion to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Ser­vice seek­ing fed­eral pro­tec­tion for mon­archs. The peti­tion was filed in August by the Cen­ter for Bio­log­i­cal Diver­sity, Cen­ter for Food Safety, The Xerces Soci­ety for Inver­te­brate Con­ser­va­tion, and renowned monarch sci­en­tist Dr. Lin­coln Brower.

The North Amer­i­can monarch but­ter­fly pop­u­la­tion has declined by 90 per­cent in the past 20 years, drop­ping from a high of approx­i­mately 1 bil­lion in the mid-1990s to fewer than 35 mil­lion but­ter­flies last win­ter – the low­est num­ber ever recorded. The dra­matic decline is being dri­ven by the loss of milk­weed plants – the monarch caterpillar’s only food – caused by increased her­bi­cide use result­ing from the wide­spread plant­ing of genet­i­cally engi­neered crops in the Mid­west, where most mon­archs are born.

“The exten­sive use of the her­bi­cide glyphosate on genet­i­cally engi­neered crops has all but wiped out milk­weed in cru­cial monarch breed­ing areas. If we have any hope of sav­ing mon­archs, our agri­cul­tural prac­tices must be at the fore­front of the con­ver­sa­tion,” said Larissa Walker, pol­li­na­tor pro­gram direc­tor at Cen­ter for Food Safety.

“The monarch but­ter­fly is North America’s most well-known and cher­ished insect,” said Sarina Jepsen, endan­gered species pro­gram direc­tor at the Xerces Soci­ety. “With­out imme­di­ate action to pro­tect this species and restore crit­i­cal milk­weed habi­tat, the spec­tac­u­lar migra­tion of the monarch but­ter­fly may no longer be an expe­ri­ence for future gen­er­a­tions to enjoy.”

“The Endan­gered Species Act is the most effec­tive tool avail­able for spurring the large-scale effort that’s needed to pro­tect the amaz­ing monarch but­ter­fly from extinc­tion,” said Tierra Curry, senior sci­en­tist at the Cen­ter for Bio­log­i­cal Diversity.

Sig­na­to­ries of the sign-on let­ters include author Bar­bara King­solver, as well as lead­ing monarch sci­en­tists and advo­cates Karen Ober­hauser, John Pleas­ants, Ina War­ren, Robert Michael Pyle, Gary Nab­han and Lin­coln Brower, among others.

Groups sup­port­ing the peti­tion through the sign-on let­ters include envi­ron­men­tal orga­ni­za­tions, reli­gious groups and busi­nesses. Among the sig­na­to­ries are Amy’s Kitchen, Catholic Rural Life, Cen­ter for Media and Democ­racy, Cit­i­zens Cam­paign for the Envi­ron­ment, Clif Bar, Con­ser­v­a­tives for Respon­si­ble Stew­ard­ship, Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soaps, Eco­log­i­cal Farm­ing Asso­ci­a­tion, Endan­gered Species Choco­late, the Endan­gered Species Coali­tion, Envi­ron­ment Amer­ica, Equal Exchange, Fam­ily Farm Defend­ers, Green Amer­ica, Green­peace USA, Humane Soci­ety of the United States, National Audubon Soci­ety, Slow Food USA, Sierra Club, Wild Farm Alliance, and numer­ous River­keeper chap­ters from across the country.

Cen­ter for Food Safety is a non­profit, pub­lic inter­est orga­ni­za­tion with over half a mil­lion mem­bers nation­wide. CFS and its mem­bers are ded­i­cated to pro­tect­ing pub­lic health and the envi­ron­ment by curb­ing the use of harm­ful food pro­duc­tion tech­nolo­gies and instead pro­mot­ing sus­tain­able alternatives.

The Xerces Soci­ety is a non­profit orga­ni­za­tion that pro­tects wildlife through the con­ser­va­tion of inver­te­brates and their habi­tat. Estab­lished in 1971, the Soci­ety is at the fore­front of inver­te­brate pro­tec­tion world­wide, har­ness­ing the knowl­edge of sci­en­tists and the enthu­si­asm of cit­i­zens to imple­ment con­ser­va­tion programs.

The Cen­ter for Bio­log­i­cal Diver­sity is a national, non­profit con­ser­va­tion orga­ni­za­tion with more than 800,000 mem­bers and online activists ded­i­cated to the pro­tec­tion of endan­gered species and wild places.

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  Source:http://agenda21news.com/2014/11/leading-scientists-200-groups-companies-call-monarch-protection/
  Comments
  EPA abuse is sure to follow placing the Monarch on the endangered species list.  The government isn’t about to ban GMOs or glyphosate. But, if they find milkweed on your property, they are sure to declare your property a “monarch land”, where you can’t do anything else on your property but have milkweed.
  Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader