Center for Food Safety Launches Lawsuit to Protect Imperiled Iowa Skipper Butterfly From Pesticides
10 October 2025, San Francisco: The Center for Food Safety yesterday filed a notice of intent to sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) for violating the Endangered Species Act (ESA or “the Act”) because the agency has unlawfully withheld its decision to protect the imperiled Iowa skipper butterfly from imminent risk of extinction.
“Pollinators like the Iowa skipper butterfly are vital to public and environmental health. Trading their extinction to pad pesticide companies’ profits is incredibly irresponsible, and unlawful. The Iowa skipper is yet another canary in the coal mine—part of an extinction crisis driven by industrial agriculture’ s monoculture crop systems and massive increases in pesticide spraying. We urge Fish and Wildlife Service to act to protect this iconic butterfly without further delay,” said Suzannah Smith, counsel for petitioner Center for Food Safety.
In March 2023, CFS filed an ESA listing petition seeking protection for the Iowa skipper butterfly. The 100-page filing, supported by over 250 scientific sources, explained how industrial agriculture’s adverse impacts have driven the skipper to near extinction. CFS’s work to protect skippers is part of its extinction crisis program, protecting other species like monarch butterflies from toxic pesticides and destruction of habitat.
In October 2024, after being compelled by prior CFS legal action, FWS announced that ESA protections may be warranted for the imperiled Iowa skipper butterfly, the first step in the listing process. FWS has now missed its subsequent one-year deadline to complete that process as required under ESA.
Background
The bright, amber-colored Iowa skipper is being driven to the brink of extinction primarily due to continued destruction of its’ habitat, and the accompanying use of toxic pesticides. Prairie-specialist butterflies like the Iowa skipper have struggled to survive in small patches of prairie habitat otherwise overtaken by industrial monoculture and the resulting pesticide use. The Iowa skipper is considered to be an indicator of a thriving prairie habitat. Its presence frequently signifies a grassland ecosystem is healthy and vibrant. As much as 99 percent of the U.S.’s 148 million acres of tallgrass prairie habitat has been destroyed. Industrial agriculture’s spraying of these toxic pesticides is contributing to the decline of the Iowa skipper due to these toxins’ direct harm to the butterfly and its surrounding habitat. The skipper’s survival is also threatened by climate change, invasive species, and the vulnerability of its small, isolated colonies.
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