Bill Text: NY A01819 | 2025-2026 | General Assembly | Introduced

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Bill Title: Enacts the monarch preservation plan requiring the department of environmental conservation to take feasible actions to conserve monarch butterflies and the unique habitats they depend upon for successful migration.

Spectrum: Slight Partisan Bill (Democrat 6-2)

Status: (Introduced) 2025-02-11 - reported referred to ways and means [A01819 Detail]

Download: New_York-2025-A01819-Introduced.html

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                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________

                                          1819

                               2025-2026 Regular Sessions

                   IN ASSEMBLY

                                    January 14, 2025
                                       ___________

        Introduced  by  M.  of A. SIMON, ZINERMAN, SAYEGH, ROSENTHAL, McDONOUGH,
          K. BROWN, COLTON, OTIS -- read once and referred to the  Committee  on
          Environmental Conservation

        AN  ACT  to  amend  the  environmental  conservation law, in relation to
          enacting the monarch preservation plan

          The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and  Assem-
        bly, do enact as follows:

     1    Section  1.  Short  title. This act shall be known and may be cited as
     2  the "monarch preservation plan".
     3    § 2. Legislative findings. The legislature hereby finds that over  the
     4  past several decades, the number of monarch butterflies in North America
     5  has  steeply  declined.  The great migration of the eastern monarchs has
     6  been named a "threatened phenomenon"  by  the  International  Union  for
     7  Conservation  of  Nature  and  Natural Resources (IUCN). As of 2014, the
     8  monarch population has declined from approximately one billion  butterf-
     9  lies to 35 million, around 90% since 1990.
    10    Major  threat  to  monarchs  include  habitat  loss and fragmentation,
    11  changes in climate and  extreme  weather,  pesticides,  herbicides,  and
    12  genetically modified crops, invasive species, disease and natural preda-
    13  tors.
    14    Actively restoring native milkweed and nectar plants, and other polli-
    15  nator  habitat,  and  ensuring  that  key  habitats  are  protected from
    16  destruction, are critical to ensuring the survival of  monarch  butterf-
    17  lies and can also help facilitate conservation of other essential polli-
    18  nators.    Enhancing pollinator populations can result in improved poll-
    19  ination  services  for  neighboring  land,  including  agriculture   and
    20  wildlife ecosystems.
    21    §  3.  The  environmental  conservation law is amended by adding a new
    22  section 11-0541 to read as follows:
    23  § 11-0541. Monarch preservation plan.

         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD04729-01-5
        A. 1819                             2

     1    Beginning within one year of the effective date of this  section,  the
     2  department  shall  take feasible actions to conserve monarch butterflies
     3  and the unique habitats they depend upon for successful migration. These
     4  actions may include, but are not  limited  to,  habitat  restoration  on
     5  department  and  state  owned  lands,  education programs, and voluntary
     6  agreements with private landowners.  The  department  may  partner  with
     7  federal  agencies,  state  agencies,  nonprofit  organizations, academic
     8  programs, private landowners, and other entities that undertake  actions
     9  to conserve monarch butterflies and aid their successful migration. When
    10  undertaking  actions  to conserve monarch butterflies and their habitats
    11  pursuant to this section, the department shall use  the  best  available
    12  science and consider, as appropriate and feasible, all of the following:
    13    1.   restoring  or  revegetating  monarch  caterpillar  habitat  using
    14  regionally or locally appropriate native  milkweed  species  and  native
    15  nectar plant species;
    16    2.  controlling  nonnative  weed species that threaten native milkweed
    17  species, and controlling pests and disease, using current  best  manage-
    18  ment  practices  consistent  with  integrated pest management principles
    19  that pose low risk to monarch butterflies and their habitat;
    20    3. controlling pest  management  practices  that  may  be  harmful  to
    21  monarch butterflies, their food or their habitat;
    22    4.  incorporating  diverse  tree species, structures, and arrangements
    23  when restoring or establishing winter habitat  sites  to  match  monarch
    24  butterfly  preferences for temperature, light, moisture, wind, and other
    25  microclimate characteristics; and
    26    5. increasing the number of partnerships and making the most of  part-
    27  nerships to use residential and institutional landscaped areas, agricul-
    28  tural  non-cropped  lands,  transportation  corridors,  and conservation
    29  easements to create, restore, or enhance monarch butterfly habitat.
    30    § 4. This act shall take effect immediately.