The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service officially listed the prostrate milkweed as endangered.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officially listed prostrate milkweed as endangered.
Important for bees, monarch butterflies and more, this plant grows in and around the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge in Texas. Its designation as endangered brings with it the protection of 661 acres as critical habitat.
Several big thank you’s are in order. One, we’re so pleased to see the Fish and Wildlife Service take this action. Two, several environmental groups brought a lawsuit that helped get us here. Three, during the agency’s public comment period, tens of thousands of our supporters weighed-in to support this very action.
2023 is the 50th anniversary of the Endangered Species Act, our last defense against extinction, and in that regard, the law has a 99% success rate. Our fingers are crossed that it can save prostrate milkweed, too.
Since the 1980s, the western monarch population has dropped by 95% and the eastern population has fallen by roughly 80%, but monarchs have yet to receive Endangered Species Act protections.
