Environmentalists are warning that the Monarch butterfly is at risk of being lost forever, and criticized a failure to provide protections for them by the Trump administration
"They are important pollinators, they're important in the food web, and then they're so important culturally because of their migrations," said Tierra Curry from the Center for Biological Diversity.
Curry told KCLU that a delay by the Trump administration until 2030 on whether to offer protections under the Endangered Species Act could be devastating for the butterflies.
"The situation is really dire; they need all the help they can get," she said. "We are seeing an anti-endangered-species agenda. The earliest date they would agree to is 2030 for final protection of monarchs as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act. And four years from now, who knows what will happen to that population."
