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Wednesday, July 6, 2016

Tell the Environmental Protection Agency: defend, don’t destroy monarch habitat. | View in Browser

Dear Lizzie,

I won’t mince words. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed increase for corn ethanol (for use as a renewable fuel) is a deep blow to struggling monarch butterflies.

Growing corn for ethanol has already caused the destruction of huge swaths of grassland habitat that vulnerable monarchs depend on for survival. There are better ways to meet our goals for cleaner fuel that do not make it harder to bring monarchs back from the brink.

Lizzie, don’t let the spectacular monarch pay the price for renewable fuels. The public comment period on this new proposal ends soon. To protect monarchs in peril we must act BEFORE Monday, July 11.

TAKE ACTION »

Monarchs must have milkweed plants to breed, it’s the one and only host plant for monarch caterpillars. And milkweed—along with butterfly nectar plants like asters and goldenrod—grow abundantly in the Midwest’s native grasslands that are the main flyway along the monarch’s migratory route.

The fact is, 90 percent of the native grassland in America has been destroyed for agriculture or development. And more gets plowed up every year, spurred in no small part by the renewable fuel standard.

Take action TODAY by urging the Environmental Protection Agency to DEFEND, not destroy native grassland habitat for monarchs and other wildlife.

The renewable fuels law clearly states that the Environmental Protection Agency should reduce mandated volumes of a fuel like corn ethanol if they “would severely harm the economy or environment.”

There’s so little monarch habitat left. Please don’t wait to protect it. Speak out now for monarchs.

Thanks for all you do for wildlife and our natural world.