Kansas expert questions effort to list monarch as threatened

A University of Kansas expert on monarch butterflies said he is leery of a request to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that the butterfly be considered for inclusion on the Endangered Species list. The federal agency was presented with a petition in August from the Center for Biological Diversity, the Center for Food Safety, the Xerces Society in Arizona and monarch scientist Dr. Lincoln Brower asking that the monarch be listed because of its population has declined by more than 90 percent in less than 20 years. Chip Taylor, an insect ecologist and founder of Monarch Watch, a nonprofit organization that focuses on the butterfly, said he's concerned about the public reaction if the agency begins telling property owners that they need to conserve certain vegetation to provide critical habitat for the butterflies, The Lawrence Journal-World reported. "Nobody wants the government to tell them what to do with their property," Taylor said. "The real challenge is to get the message out and get the public involved. This really is the way to go." Taylor noted an ongoing controversy over the lesser prairie chicken, which began in March when the Fish and Wildlife Service listed the bird as threatened under the Endangered Species Act...more