KUT Despite qualifying for protections under the federal Endangered Species Act, the monarch butterfly will not be added to the list this year. "After looking at all the information that we gathered and weighing it against the criteria in the Endangered Species Act, we determined that listing is warranted," said Georgia Parham, a public affairs specialist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. However, she said, other species are "higher priority." Parham said the agency is looking at about 160 other species that could qualify for listing as threatened or endangered. The monarch's population has been declining for two decades, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has spent the last four years assessing whether it qualifies for protection.