A new bill sponsored by Michigan Congresswoman Debbie Dingell would put almost $1.4 billion a year toward pulling at-risk animal and plant species back from the brink, with about 27-million of that for Michigan. The Recovering America’s Wildlife Act would allow states and tribes to better implement their wildlife action plans to help save 12,000 species of concern, mostly by preserving habitat. It has bipartisan support, and Representative Dingell says now is the time to act.
“Do you know that one-third of all our wildlife species are at increased risk of extinction? And if we don’t start to work now, it’s going to be gone. I know this sounds corny, but can you imagine us without the monarch butterfly?”
Habitat restoration is key, and so states are now planting more milkweed, the monarch butterfly’s favorite food. They argue doing so is far less expensive than the restrictions and lawsuits that would result if the butterfly has to be put on the endangered species list.
