FIGHTING TO SAVE THE BEES
Endangered bumblebee is at the center of a legal challenge
CHICAGO – Conservation groups are making another push to protect habitat for the endangered rusty patched bumblebee, a creature that once buzzed throughout much of the United States and today is an insect you’re lucky to spot at all. h A federal lawsuit challenging a decision by the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service to not designate critical habitat for the bee was filed last week by the
Natural Resources Defense Council, the Center for Biological Diversity and Friends of
Minnesota Scientific and Natural Areas. It’s the latest in a series of legal challenges in the lead-up to and aftermath of the bee’s listing under the Endangered Species Act.
The bee, which at one point existed in nearly 30 states including Illinois, is the first and only bumblebee listed under the act. A little more than two decades ago, its numbers began a sharp drop – crashing by at least 87%. The listing means the species was found to be at risk of extinction; recovery efforts are underway.
Like monarch butterflies, the bee is thought of as a species that can encourage conservation and open the door to creating pollinator habitat. Pollinators are responsible for a significant amount of food supply and the overall health of ecosystems. The rusty patched bumblebee might not be as flashy as the monarch, but it’s thick and fuzzy and adorable, as far as bugs go.
As the legal challenge moves ahead, local efforts to encourage habitat creation for the bee are picking up. And rusty patched hopefuls are still on the lookout for a rare sighting of a bumblebee with a tawny marking below black and yellow stripes.
In August 2018, Andrea Gruver was conducting graduate research as part of a joint program between Northwestern University and the Chicago Botanic Garden when she saw something she wasn’t expecting. And something she hasn’t seen since.
Gruver’s research involved the effects of urbanization on bees. She set up field sites, some more urban, some less, and waited to see which bees showed up.
“I was like, I don’t think that’s a rusty patched,” Gruver said. “The probability of it being a rusty patched bumblebee is very low.”
But two rusty patched bumblebees happened to be foraging around Rogers Park near the Metra station. Confirmation of the bee brought a sigh of relief. “This is a really good sign that this bee is still here and it’s even in Chicago,” Gruver said. “Potentially, these could be areas that could really harbor a lot of bee diversity.”
Last year, the Fish and Wildlife Service determined
that designating critical habitat for the bee was “not prudent,” arguing that its recovery didn’t depend primarily on specific habitat.
“As a habitat generalist, the rusty patched bumble bee can find the habitat it needs in a variety of ecosystems, including prairies, woodlands, marshes, agricultural landscapes and residential parks and gardens, all of which are abundant across the bee’s range,” said Lori Nordstrom, assistant regional director for Ecological Services in the Great Lakes region, in the agency’s news release announcing the decision.
But some conservation groups argue the bee should get a full suite of protections.
There can be instances in which the habitat designation, which offers another round of regulatory checkpoints, isn’t needed, said Lori Ann Burd, the Center for Biological Diversity’s environmental health director. But this isn’t one of those cases.
“This was a Trump-era decision,” Burd said. “I really hope that the Biden administration realizes that they have an opportunity to really make a difference in the pollinator crisis. Extinction is a political choice and the solutions to extinction are political choices. And this is just a question of mustering the political will to give the species what it is entitled to and what it needs to not go extinct.”
Burd said she’s hoping to see a shift in how the Fish and Wildlife Service takes action on endangered species, from the rusty patched bumblebee to the monarch butterfly. “I think they both tell the story of how these once-widespread generalists are tanking because of human action,” Burd said.
Some bumblebee populations are shrinking at a significantly more rapid pace than others. As is often the case with threatened species, there’s not one clear cause accepted as the definitive answer to the rusty patched bumblebee’s decline. There is a mix of hazards, which together can increase the potential for harm.