Monarch Butterfly Plan Seen as Model for Protecting Other Species

A strategy to help private landowners save the declining monarch butterfly is a model for how to prevent other plants and animals, including the greater sage-grouse, from needing Endangered Species Act protection, advocates and state and federal officials say.

Under a plan announced last week, private landowners and 45 energy and transportation companies are providing habitat for the monarch butterfly under a voluntary agreement with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The agreement allows the landowners to voluntarily conserve habitat without ever having to undertake any additional conservation measures that would be required if the butterfly ...