On March 1, 2021, the Center for Biological Diversity filed a petition to seek Endangered Species Act protection for the Sacramento Mountains checkerspot butterflies. This species is only known to exist in a limited area within the Lincoln National Forest in southern New Mexico.  Since 1999, the Sacramento Mountains checkerspot butterfly population has been declining precipitously. This situation had led the Forest Service to conclude that it is the most endangered butterfly in the United States and predicted that this species has “non-trivial probability of imminent extinction”. 

To read more about the Center for Biological Diversity’s efforts to save the Sacramento Mountains checkerspot butterfly, go to:

https://biologicaldiversity.org/w/news/press-releases/endangered-species-act-protection-sought-for-sacramento-mountains-checkerspot-butterfly-2021-03-01/

The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 1.7 million members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild plaes.