Government pledges millions to save the monarch butterfly

(Image credit: Susana Gonzalez/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

last updated 10 February 2015

The monarch butterfly population has dwindled from an estimated 1 billion in the 1990s to just 35 million in 2014, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and two conservation groups are coming together to stop the decline.

The decrease is likely due to a loss of milkweed, the monarch caterpillar's only food source, and conversion of the butterfly's native short and tallgrass prairie habitat to crop production, CBS News reports. "We can save the monarch butterfly in North American but only if we act quickly and together," said Dan Ashe, director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. "And that is why we are excited to be working with the National Wildlife Federation and National Fish and Wildlife Foundation to engage Americans everywhere, from schools and community groups to corporations and governments, in protecting and restoring habitat."

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

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