Friend,
Fluttering from flower to flower during their migration of up to 3,000 miles, monarch butterflies grace our lives and pollinate our plants.
But lately, fewer and fewer of us even see monarch visitors: For example, 20 years ago, 1.2 million western monarchs graced our skies -- but now, only 2,000 remain.[1]
This Earth Day, we're working to win protections for monarchs and bans on the pesticides that kill monarch caterpillars' only food source. Will you help us? Make a donation by midnight tonight, and your gift will be matched dollar for dollar, up to $25,000 nationwide.
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The tiny two-inch monarch caterpillar only has two weeks to eat, grow and rest before spinning into its chrysalis -- its last step before metamorphosing into a beautiful butterfly.
Once they metamorphosize, a flock of monarchs makes their great migration -- in fact, they're the only butterflies on Earth that complete a two-way migration. Flying all the way from Mexico to Maine, eastern monarchs can pollinate thousands of plants, but it takes a lot of fuel to get these critters across the country -- fuel our monarch caterpillars aren't getting.
Right now, dangerous pesticides are killing monarch caterpillars' only food source -- milkweed -- leaving them weak and hungry during the only two weeks they have before their metamorphosis.[2,3]
About 80 percent of all flowering plants need animal pollinators like butterflies and bees -- and after losing more than 99 percent of western monarchs and 80 percent of eastern monarchs, our planet can't afford to lose any more pollinators.[4] That's why Environment Colorado is speaking up to protect them.
Help us keep monarchs and other pollinators flying by making your Earth Day gift before midnight tonight, and generous donors will double your impact by matching it dollar for dollar, up to $25,000 nationwide.
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Weighing less than 1 gram -- lighter than a paperclip -- monarch butterflies fly to bright flowers to eat nectar and pollinate our wildflowers. But when a monarch caterpillar never makes it to metamorphosis day, our wildflowers can miss their pollination and our skies miss their beautiful color.
At Environment Colorado, we know that it's time to stand up for monarchs -- because we don't want to spend future Earth Days mourning monarchs.
So we're working to pass more bans and ordinances against dangerous pesticides that starve monarch caterpillars. Will you help us make sure these pollinators make it to their first flight?
Help us save monarchs. Donate to our Earth Day drive before midnight tonight and your gift will be matched, doubling your impact, up to $25,000 nationwide.
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Thank you,
Hannah Collazo
State Director
1. John Flesher, "Feds to delay seeking legal protection for monarch butterfly," AP News, December 15, 2020.
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2. Farah Eltohamy, "Monarch butterflies denied endangered species listing despite shocking decline," National Geographic, December 15, 2020.
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3. Lela Nargi, "These caterpillars aren't just hungry, they're hangry," The Washington Post, December 22, 2020.
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4. Theresa Machemer "Why Monarch Butterflies Aren't Getting Endangered Species Status," Smithsonian Magazine, December 21, 2020.
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Your donation will be used to support all of our campaigns to protect the environment, from saving the bees and protecting public lands, to standing up for clean water and fighting climate change. None of our work would be possible without supporters like you. Environment Colorado may transfer up to $50 per dues-paying member per year into the Environment Colorado Small Donor Committee.
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