US wildlife agency agrees to decide monarch butterfly listing by June 2030

WASHINGTON, Sept 30 — The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service agreed on Wednesday to submit a final Endangered Species Act listing determination for the monarch butterfly by June 6, 2030, under a settlement with two conservation groups that still requires court approval.²

The stipulated settlement agreement and proposed order was filed in Case No. 3:26-cv-01281-TSH in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.² It says its terms become effective upon entry of a court order approving it.¹

The agreement requires only that the Service submit the determination to the Office of the Federal Register for publication by the deadline.¹ It says nothing in it limits the agency's discretion over the substance of that determination.¹

The deadline would be extended by the number of calendar days of any lapse in appropriations, according to the agreement.¹

The parties reached the settlement without any admission or final adjudication of the issues of fact or law with respect to the plaintiffs' claims, the agreement says.¹ Upon court approval, all counts of the complaint would be dismissed with prejudice.¹

"It’s shameful that it will have taken over a decade and a half from the time we sought protection for monarchs until they finally get the safeguards they need to survive, but it’s significant that we now have a binding date for final listing," George Kimbrell, legal director at the Center for Food Safety, said in a press release.²

The plaintiffs reserved the right to request attorneys' fees and costs, and would provide an itemization within 45 days of the court's approval, the agreement says.¹

The Service published a proposed rule to list the monarch as a threatened species on Dec 12, 2024, according to the agreement.¹ The Center for Biological Diversity and the Center for Food Safety filed their complaint on Feb 12, 2026, seeking to compel a final determination by a date certain.¹