These include planting native flowers, limiting or avoiding pesticides, and fostering natural landscapes that attract the insects. (See “ 9 Ways You Can Help Bees and Other Pollinators At Home.”) In its announcement about the rusty patched bumblebees’ endangered status, the department listed ways that individuals can help stop the bees’ decline. “The economic value of pollination services provided by native insects (mostly bees) is estimated at $3 billion per year in the United States.” “Bumblebees are among the most important pollinators of crops such as blueberries, cranberries, and clover, and almost the only insect pollinators of tomatoes,” according to the U.S. ( See seven intimate pictures that reveal the beauty of bees.) This is a big deal not only for bees but for people, too-after all, bees pollinate a lot of our food. ![]() The threats facing those seven species are similar to the ones that have depleted rusty patched bumblebee populations: loss of habitat, diseases and parasites, pesticides, and climate change. ( Read “For the First Time, Bees Declared Endangered in the U.S.”) bee to be deemed endangered: In September, seven species of Hawaiian yellow-faced bees received protection under the Endangered Species Act. Federal protections may be the only thing standing between the bumblebee and extinction,” Rebecca Riley, senior attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council, said in a statement. “The Trump administration reversed course and listed the rusty patched bumblebee as an endangered species just in the nick of time. The final March 21 listing renders both arguments moot. In turn, industry groups including the National Cotton Council and the American Petroleum Institute had petitioned the agency to push back the listing until January 2018. Fish and Wildlife Service, arguing that the delay was illegal. The delay had been the subject of a tense legal battle: On February 14, the Natural Resources Defense Council filed suit against the U.S. Natural history photographer Clay Bolt is on a multi-year quest to tell the stories of our native bees, and the rusty patched bumblebee has become his ‘white whale.’ This submission to National Geographic's Short Film Showcase was produced by Day's Edge Productions and Clay Bolt in partnership with Xerces Society and Endangered Species Chocolate. ![]() Fish and Wildlife Service announced that the bumblebee’s listing would take effect on March 21, more than a month after it was originally scheduled. But on January 20, the bee got stung by the Trump administration’s efforts to postpone and review Obama-era regulations that hadn’t yet taken into effect. Fish and Wildlife Service finalized the bumblebee’s listing as an endangered species. There are more than 3,000 bee species in the United States, and about 40 belong to the genus Bombus-the bumblebees.Īdvocates for the rusty patched bumblebee’s listing are abuzz with relief, but it may be the first skirmish in a grueling conflict over the fate of the Endangered Species Act under the Trump administration. ![]() Once thriving in 28 states and the District of Columbia, but over the past two decades, the bee’s population has plummeted nearly 90 percent. The rusty patched bumblebee ( Bombus affinis), once a common sight, is “now balancing precariously on the brink of extinction,” according to the U.S. It’s official: For the first time in the United States, a bumblebee species has been declared endangered.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |