Monarch Recovery Management Lawsuit
Monarch recovery is a term that’s been gaining some recent publicity. The Monarch butterfly (Dana macraana) is iconic species found in the southern United States. It is the only butterfly native to North America, and is an exquisite species known for its beauty and intricate wings. For years, the common blamed the decline on improper planting, but many scientists believe otherwise. The lawsuit revolves around a massive, five-million pound butterfly dying in a nearby forest; the loss of this butterfly is the biggest ever recorded.
A lawsuit against the USDA has been filed by the Center for Food Safety, claiming negligence leading up to the incident.
This claim is part of a growing trend of such suits being filed by government agencies and private parties. This lawsuit is currently active in the courts and is expected to move forward rapidly. In the meantime, interested persons are urged to become involved in the lawsuit.
The suit against the USDA revolves around the deaths of millions of monarch larvae in May, 2021.
The plaintiffs argue that the timing of the lawsuit is wrong, as monarchs are not migratory at that time of year. They also argue that the timing of the lawsuit is perfectly reasonable, given that monarchs do not migrate south any more. After all, they have lived all their lives in Mexico and Central America, so why would they suddenly make a migration to the very south? If the monarchs did make a migration, the suit argues, it would have become readily apparent from the way their wings became disheveled and disorganized after migrating. The evidence simply does not point to this happening.
Monarch Butterflies lay eggs, rather than flying away from the perch they have grown accustomed to.
When the eggs dry out and begin to wrinkle or turn black, this is a sign that the larvae are dying. It is this loss of life that the suit claims is the basis for the lawsuit. The suit claims that the USDA and EPA were aware of this decline in the monarch population long before the monarch swarms disappeared, yet they did not take any measures to reverse this decline. There are many theories as to why this is.
One theory is that the monarchs did not die because there was a massive die-off. Rather, thousands of the winged insects simply disappeared one by one over the last decade. However, there are a number of problems with this theory. For example, if there is a massive die-off and then hundreds or thousands of more monarchs suddenly start coming back, this can certainly explain why the wingless insects are still alive.
Another possible explanation is that when the last of the winged insect swarms did die off, the winged insects did not emerge because they were already dead.
The lawsuits also claim that some of the surviving monarchs did not appear to survive the die-off. If this is true, it means that a generation or two must have existed before the monarchs came back. That would put a long time between the time that the species disappeared from the earth and their comeback.
In addition to the lawsuits being filed by the R.A.P.M. themselves, there is a separate lawsuit by the Center for Food Safety and Environmental Risk Management.
This lawsuit claims that the monarch populations were so great that the R.A.P.M. was unable to protect them in their natural habitat.
Before you dismiss the lawsuit as irrelevant, remember that over 1.5 million acres of the Macapurns’ forest were destroyed during the last few decades. If these claims are true, this is the largest loss of any butterfly in the U.S. The loss of the monarchs in the Macapurns is a terrible thing to happen to butterflies. If you love nature, save the monarchs, and don’t buy the GMP, help put a stop to the lawsuits.
