2 MILLION BLOSSOMS


BUMBLE BEES GET CRITICAL HABITAT STATUS?


WILL RUSTY PATCHED


Above: A rusty patched bumble bee and a monarch butterfly share a stand of hyssop. © Lisa Nordstrom Kuck


O 62


n March 24, 2021, several conservation organizations, including the Center for Biological Diversity, sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for denying critical


habitat status to the endangered rusty patched bumble bee (Bombus affinis).


Fish and Wildlife listed the rusty patched bumble bee


as endangered under the U.S. Endangered Species act in 2017, in part, because its abundance in the Upper Midwest and East Coast had declined by 87 percent. But the agency          species warranted the critical habitat designation until another lawsuit compelled it to do so.


Wildlife Service by Andy Carstens


The result was a September 2020 ruling that stated,


      or curtailment of habitat is not the primary threat to the species, and the availability of habitat does not limit the conservation of the rusty patched bumble bee now, nor will it in the future.” “That’s not true. That’s not what they say in [their] listing decision. That’s not what the science says,” said Lori Ann Burd, Environmental Health Program Director and Senior Attorney for the Center for Biological Diversity. Burd thinks Fish and Wildlife’s decision contradicts the very arguments it  agency is shirking its duties by not fully protecting the bees.


Conservation Groups Sue U.S. Fish and


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