Bill > A5526

Introduced Session

This bill would prohibit the sale, offer for sale, or transportation for sale in the State of any milkweed plant that has been treated with a pesticide determined by the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to be harmful to monarch butterflies. The DEP, in consultation with the Department of Agriculture, would develop a list of such pesticides. A person who violates the law would be liable to a civil penalty of up to $100, and each day during which the violation continues would constitute a separate offense. The monarch butterfly is perhaps the most iconic and studied butterfly in North America. Each year, millions of monarchs migrate from their overwintering sites in Mexico and California to the northern United States and Canada, stopping at sites along the way, including New Jersey, to feed and reproduce. However, in recent years, migrating monarch populations in New Jersey and across the country have decreased significantly. A report from the World Wildlife Fund indicates that migrating monarch butterflies are in "grave danger," as their overwintering colonies in Mexico now occupy a small fraction of the land they once did. Scientists estimate that, in 2013, the migrating monarch population was just 35 million butterflies, a sharp decline from the nearly one billion monarchs that made the 1,500 mile journey in 1990. A major cause of the decline in the monarch butterfly population is the widespread loss of a plant called milkweed due to human development. Milkweed is the only plant on which monarch butterflies lay their eggs, and the monarch's main larval food source. In recent years, there has been a renewed effort by governments, individuals, and organizations to plant milkweed and build and protect butterfly habitats so that future generations may enjoy the annual monarch migration. However, new research has shown that plants treated with certain pesticides, including neonicotinoids, can harm monarch butterflies and their larva. This bill would prohibit the sale of milkweed treated with harmful pesticides in order to protect New Jersey's migrating monarch butterfly population.

AI Summary

Committee Categories

Clinton Calabrese (D)*,  Ronald Dancer (R)*,  Eric Houghtaling (D)*,  JoAnn Downey (D), 

Reported out of Assembly Committee, 2nd Reading (on 06/10/2019)

Official Document