Se espera que el Servicio de Pesca y Vida Silvestre de Estados Unidos decida pronto si incluye a la mariposa monarca en la lista de especies "amenazadas" de la Ley de Especies en Peligro de Extinción. La designación podría tener consecuencias importantes para uno de los insectos más conocidos del país. Las monarcas están divididas en dos colonias en cada lado de las Montañas Rocosas, y tanto las colonias orientales como las occidentales se han reducido en más del 90%. Rebeca Quiñonez-Piñón, del National Wildlife Federation, dice que si se incluye a la monarca en la lista, se implementarán reglas federales para ayudar a sus colonias.

"La ventaja es que el Servicio puede trabajar en regulaciones para la especie, que pueden ser muy específicas, para abordar las principales necesidades de la mariposa monarca, y así garantizar que podamos recuperarnos y aumentar el tamaño de su población," aseguró Quiñonez-Piñón.

Según ella, la pérdida de hábitat, los pesticidas y el cambio climático son las principales causas del declive de esta especie. Las mariposas monarca pesan menos que un clip y pueden recorrer más de 3,000 millas durante su migración. Al menos el 90% de las monarca migran a través de Texas.

Además de ser una de las migraciones más largas que cualquier especie, la monarca tiene un gran impacto ecológico. Mary Phillips, también del National Wildlife Federation, explica que la salud de las colonias de mariposas monarca a menudo indica la salud de otras poblaciones de polinizadores.

"Gran parte del hábitat de la monarca refleja también el hábitat de nuestros polinizadores nativos. Son una especie de canario en una mina de carbón, que han puesto de manifiesto el importante esfuerzo que supone la pérdida del hábitat, el cambio climático y las ramificaciones ecológicas por el uso de pesticidas en muchas de nuestras especies de insectos," insistió Phillips.

El cultivo de aguacate es una grave amenaza para los hábitats invernales de esta especie en México, donde miles de hectáreas de una reserva de la mariposa monarca han sido deforestadas para la producción de aguacate. Esto ha llevado a más de dos docenas de grupos ambientalistas a pedir al Departamento de Estado prohibir la importación de aguacates vinculados con la deforestación.

La clave para el resurgimiento de la mariposa monarca es el algodoncillo, que es la única planta que las orugas monarca pueden comer. Phillips enumera que plantar algodoncillo es una de las formas más útiles para que la gente puede participar en su conservación. Añade que no hay que olvidarse tampoco de las monarcas adultas.

"El algodoncillo es una planta absolutamente esencial. Si vas a tener un jardín de monarcas, es imprescindible que coloques algodoncillo nativo en la zona en la que te encuentres y equilibrarlo con otras plantas nectaríferas nativas que florezcan en tres estaciones," enfatizó también Phillips

Más de 1,300 especies en los Estados Unidos están protegidas por la Ley de Especies en Peligro de Extinción.

The United States has a national mammal, tree and flower but the status of America's most treasured bird was not always so clear officially or ecologically until now.

Last week, the bald eagle officially became the national bird of the U.S. More than 50 years ago, pesticide use had decimated bald eagle populations. Researchers recorded the lowest number of nesting pairs in 1963, at just 417.

Aimee Delach, senior policy analyst at Defenders of Wildlife, said pesticides like DDT worked their way up the food chain in a process known as biomagnification.

"A species like a bald eagle, which eats a lot of fish, they're essentially getting a dose from everything that those fish have eaten in their lifetimes," Delach pointed out. "Biomagnification is why these pesticide issues show up worst in some of the 'top of the food chain' animals, like bald eagles."

Delach noted pesticides interfered with the bald eagle's calcium levels, which caused eggshells to be weak and less likely to hatch. The federal government banned the use of DDTin 1972 and a conservation law brought the bald eagle back from the brink. In 1973, Congress passed the Endangered Species Act and ever since, bald eagles have made major rebounds.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service estimates the bald eagle population now stands at more than 300,000. Many people assume the bald eagle has always been our national bird but while it has been a symbol on our country's seal for centuries, it had never been officially designated.

Delach added the decision is long overdue.

"It's really fitting that the bald eagle be our national bird," Delach asserted. "There are almost 70 species of eagle across the world but the bald eagle is the only one that's found only in North America. So it really is our national bird, as far as its territory and range."

The Endangered Species Act will celebrate its 51st anniversary Saturday.

The federal Department of the Interior has awarded the Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission more than $800,000 for recovery efforts for American martens, Wisconsin's only state endangered mammal - that many people have never heard of.

Martens have been trapped for their fur for various purposes. Jonathan Pauli is a professor of forest and wildlife ecology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

He said silvicultural practices and logging within local national forests altered martens' preferred habitats.

"This work is really trying to understand how do we manage habitat in a meaningful way," said Pauli, "on these working landscapes, to increase marten habitat, and connectivity of these different subpopulations, to ensure martens are here for the foreseeable future."

Pauli said the grant money - from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation's America The Beautiful Challenge - will bring together a diverse group of folks from the federal, state, tribal, and academic levels over four years. They'll create a forest management proposal - with recommended habitat improvements for marten recovery in Wisconsin.

The project will also include training for future biologists and ecologists.

In the 1930s, martens were considered regionally extinct. A series of regional reintroduction efforts has spanned nearly 60 years.

Pauli said martens play important cultural, economic, and ecological roles - including the ability, as predators, to keep rodent populations at bay that are important carriers of diseases such as Lyme's Disease.

Martens are also good dispersers of seeds for foods such as blueberries, and are culturally significant to the Ojibwe or Chippewa people.

With varying degrees of chestnut brown furs, they have distinct golden throats and are the size of a cat, with semi-retractable claws that help them navigate through forests and snow.

"They actually live and hunt underneath that snowpack," said Pauli, "that they can slink in and out from underneath the snow where they can hunt all the mice that are living underneath the snow - and then pop up out of the snow bank. And they have big feet like snowshoe hares, almost, where they can surf on top of the snow."

Pauli said it's a real treat when you actually get to see one because they are so rare and cryptic.

For the first time in a century, martens were spotted this year on Lake Superior's Madeline Island in northern Wisconsin.

Ecology experts say this gives them hope for a positive recovery trend for the rare mammal.




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The southern Appalachian Mountains, known as the salamander capital of the world, are home to some of the most distinct wildlife in the country but Hurricane Helene's strong winds and flooding have left a trail of destruction across Western North Carolina.

Communities and businesses are working to recover and conservationists are raising concerns about how the storm has affected endangered species.

JJ Apodaca, executive director of the Amphibian and Reptile Conservancy, said one species in particular, the hellbender salamander, has suffered greatly.

"Hellbenders are a large aquatic salamander and several of those have been found dead across the region," Apodaca reported. "You can just imagine that something that's two feet long and doesn't really swim that well can't really escape the devastation."

Apodaca described the damage to habitats such as the Hickory Nut Gorge as catastrophic. He noted entire slopes and hillsides of trees have been wiped out, resulting in a complete loss of habitat for many species. While conservationists are still assessing the long-term effects, he stressed the outlook raises serious concerns for the future of the ecosystems.

Dalton George, national grassroots organizer for the Endangered Species Coalition and mayor pro tem of Boone, emphasized the importance of prioritizing wildlife and environmental health during recovery efforts. He pointed to greener infrastructure as a solution, prioritizing designs allowing wildlife to move freely, protecting clean water and managing stormwater effectively. He said the steps are essential to balancing recovery with long-term sustainability.

"With salamanders, with wildlife, here in the Appalachian Mountains, they need those protections now more than ever as we see the impacts of climate change and the extinction crisis happening globally," George asserted.

George highlighted the importance of the Endangered Species Act as a critical tool for preserving wildlife and their habitats. However, the act has faced repeated attacks in Congress. Conservationists say continued public support and advocacy are key to ensuring it remains a strong safeguard for the region's wildlife and ecosystems.


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