The rusty patched bumblebee was to join the U.S. Endangered Species list today, February 10. After years of work on its behalf by conservationists, the listing was approved on January 10, 2017. On January 20, however, the Trump administration decreed a freeze on implementing regulations approved under Obama that had not yet taken effect. The listing of the bee is now suspended until March 21 -- but subject to review, and may be turned over during that time.
The rusty patched bumblebee was once abundant across prairies and other grasslands from the upper Midwest to the northeastern U.S. and across much of eastern Canada. Habitat loss and fragmentation are the main reasons for its decline. Also implicated are pathogens and parasites spread by domestic honeybees (which in the U.S. is an introduced species), pesticide exposure in nectar and pollen, and global warming, which can harm bees by increasing the frequency of extreme weather events and through life-cycle shifts that can cause bees to develop out of seasonal sync with their nectar sources. The bee's populations have plunged nearly 90% since the late 1990s, probably as a result of a combination of these factors.
The right often claims that it is excessively easy to place species on the endangered list, but this bumblebee's story -- which is by no means atypical -- illustrates how lengthy and difficult the process actually is. The listing process formally started with a petition filed with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service by the Xerces Society, an invertebrate conservation group, in 2013. Before that, the Xerces Society and bee researchers spent over a decade investigating the biology and status of the species, documenting its decline and assessing its habitat needs. In September 2016, the USFWS announced that after three years of review, it would recommend the species for the endangered list. On January 10, this decision was finalized.
By contrast, other agencies have moved more swiftly to protect the rusty patched bumblebee. It was listed under the Canadian equivalent of the Endangered Species Act in 2010, and recognized as "critically endangered" by the IUCN (International Union for the Conservation of Nature, the premier global listing agency for imperiled species) in 2014. In general -- across all sorts of taxa, not just insects -- the U.S. tends to lag behind the IUCN in recognizing endangered species.
Insects are greatly underrepresented on the U.S. endangered list. There are over a million known insect species, and probably five to eight million in all, compared to some 50,000 vertebrates; yet only 84 insects are listed as threatened or endangered in the U.S., vs. 439 vertebrates. Many insects garner little attention from researchers -- due to lack of interest or lack of funding -- and thus it is often difficult to clear the hurdles posed by the USFWS for documenting threats to their populations.
Why should anyone care about this, or any, wild bee? For one, bees are the premier pollinators of the insect world. Native bees, like the rusty patched bumblebee, and native wildflowers have evolved together over millions of years, and often the native bees are the best, or even the only, pollinators for certain plant species. The six bees that are currently on the U.S. endangered list are Hawaiian natives that pollinate native plants that are themselves endangered, in part because of the decline of these bees. Wild bees often help pollinate crops, as well, and given recent problems with honeybees they have increasingly come to be seen as an important agricultural resource. The rusty patched bumblebee is an excellent pollinator of cranberries, and contributes to the pollination of plums and apples, as well as dozens of wildflowers. Moreover, protecting one species means protecting its habitat, and thus benefits all of the species that live there as well. By protecting and restoring rusty patched bumblebee habitat and reducing its exposure to pesticides, the health of entire ecosystems is supported. Even Richard Nixon understood this! Upon signing the Endangered Species Act in 1973, he issued the following statement:
Nothing is more priceless and more worthy of preservation than the rich array of animal life with which our country has been blessed. It is a many-faceted treasure, of value to scholars, scientists, and nature lovers alike, and it forms a vital part of the heritage we all share as Americans. I congratulate the 93d Congress for taking this important step toward protecting a heritage which we hold in trust to countless future generations of our fellow citizens. Their lives will be richer, and America will be more beautiful in the years ahead, thanks to the measure that I have the pleasure of signing into law today
The Xerces Society and Natural Resources Defense Council, among others, will continue to advocate for the rusty patched bumblebee. Its fate is worth following, because it is becoming clear that much is now at stake: the Endangered Species Act itself is, well, endangered. Though not controversial when passed by Congress in 1973 (92-0 in the Senate), it has increasingly become the target of legislation designed to weaken it. Since its inception, nearly 300 laws have been introduced aimed at diminishing various provisions of the Act, 135 of them in the last Congress alone. Most of those did not pass. But now the stars have aligned for Act opponents, with a President who no doubt will rubber-stamp any law that announces itself as pro-development, and GOP lawmakers are rubbing their hands at the prospect. It seems unlikely that Republicans will propose to do away with the Act altogether, given its high levels of popular support. But they may quietly legislate it to death. Already some potentially damaging legislation has been introduced by the new Congress.
All those rusty patched bees are now quietly snoozing through the winter in underground nests. Will they emerge a protected species, or not? Stay tuned.