Environmental group to sue feds over delayed action on Iowa skipper butterfly

The Iowa skipper butterfly, once prevalent in prairies across the middle of the U.S., is now at risk of extinction — according to the Center for Food Safety, which has petitioned federal agencies to list the butterfly as an endangered species.

The Center originally filed a petition on the butterfly in March of 2023, but after several extensions and missed deadlines from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to make a decision, the Center has filed a notice of intent to sue over the delayed action.

Center for Food Safety holds that the Iowa skipper, a small bright yellow and orange butterfly, has lost most of its habitat due to agriculture and is further at risk by commercial pesticide spraying, climate change and invasive species.

Suzannah Smith, legal counsel with the Center for Food Safety, said the Iowa skipper, if listed as endangered, will get designated critical habitat, which she said will be good for a slew of at-risk pollinators.

“Because they’re an indicator of good prairie habitat, a lot of other pollinators that are just barely hanging on the Great Plains are also really dependent on the habitat that they’re in, and so by designating the habitat for the Iowa skipper, we can also help protect a lot of other pollinators,” Smith said.

Endangered species designation would also protect the butterfly from actions intended to harm, trap, kill, wound or capture.

Iowa skipper no longer in Iowa

The Center for Food Safety, a nonprofit aimed at fighting the industrial food model, called the Iowa skipper a “canary in the coal mine” for high-quality prairie habitat. According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, North America has lost more than 60% of its grassland biome, and 99 percent of tall grass prairie in the continent has been lost because of agriculture, development and invasive species. While the grassland biome used to stretch as far east as Iowa, most of the remaining biome, according to the service, is further west and south.

The subspecies of skipper butterfly, despite its name, has not been present in Iowa since 2009, according to the center’s petition from March 2023 to list the butterfly as an endangered species.

In addition to Iowa, the butterfly was commonly found in 14 states through the central portion of the country. Now, according to the center’s petition, Atrytone arogos iowa, the Latin name for the butterfly, is typically found only in protected prairie areas in states like Nebraska, Colorado and Oklahoma.

The center calls the butterfly a “prairie specialist” and holds that the conversion of prairie to cropland, combined with regular application of pesticides on commercial agriculture operations, has contributed to the species’ decline. Smith said even in protected prairie areas, the butterfly is at risk of pesticide drift as the small protected regions are typically surrounded by cropland.

According to the petition, the Iowa skipper faces similar threats to the already endangered Dakota skipper, Poweshiek skipperling and rusty patched bumblebee.

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Legal action

The Center for Food Safety’s notice of intent to sue alleges USFWS violated the Endangered Species Act by failing to issue a finding on the butterfly within its designated time frame.

This is the second time the center has issued a notice of intent to sue over the matter. It filed in April 2024 after the initial one-year and 90-day deadlines were missed. According to the center, the federal department responded in June 2024 that it would make a 90-day finding, so the center held off on the suit. In October 2024 the USFWS said a listing “may be warranted” for the butterfly, and according to the center, did not issue its 12-month finding on the matter after a full year. The center filed the latest notice of intent to sue on Oct. 8, 2025.

Smith said it “seemed like” the service was working on reaching a decision in 2024, which is why the center gave it a “bit of a grace period.” But, she said the service then “blew past the deadline,” even before the current government shutdown.

Staff at USFWS could not be reached for comment on the notice of intent to sue because of the federal shutdown which furloughed hundreds of thousands of federal employees.

The Center for Food Safety said it intends to sue under the Endangered Species Act if USFWS does not issue its 12-month finding, or “develop a timeline” for the Iowa skipper in the next 60 days.

Butterfly protections

The Endangered Species Act, which passed in 1973, is considered one of the strongest laws in the U.S. and has become fairly controversial in the past 50 years. Some believe the law is used by environmental advocates to block various development projects.

The first notable time the law was used, it protected a small darter fish in a Tennessee river and in the process, stalled a massive dam project.

Smith said the endangered species designation for the Iowa skipper would protect the butterfly from any “taking” by a private or government actor. Taking, under the act includes things like harming, killing, trapping or wounding.

Smith said spraying pesticides in an area where the butterflies are known to live would be a form of taking. Controlled burns, which are often used to manage protected areas, can also harm the butterflies, so Smith said endangered species designation for the butterfly could also alter some land management practices in areas the butterfly resides.

The Center for Food Safety has an extinction crisis campaign as well as campaigns against pesticides, which includes herbicides, insecticides and neonicotinoids. It also fights against things like forever chemicals, genetically engineered foods and confined animal feeding operations.

“Our belief is that our food system should be nourishing both humans and the planet, and we shouldn’t have a food system that’s destroying our planet,” Smith said. “So we’re trying to make sure that industrial agriculture, including monoculture and pesticides, aren’t pushing pollinators towards extinction.”

This article was first published by Iowa Capital Dispatch.