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        <h1 class="headline featured_image_headline" style="background:
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          font-weight: 700; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Greens seek protection
          for American bumblebee</h1>
        <section class="byline" style="background: transparent; border:
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              href="https://www.eenews.net/staff/Michael_Doyle"
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              moz-do-not-send="true">Michael Doyle</a>, E&E News
            reporter</span><time style="background: transparent; border:
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            normal;">Published: Monday, February 1, 2021</time></section>
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          width: 940px; position: relative;"><img
            src="https://www.eenews.net/image_assets/2021/02/image_asset_106735.jpg"
            alt="American Bumble Bee, Bombus pennsylvanicus, on
            coneflower. Photo credit: Adam Jones/Danita Delimont
            Photography/Newscom" style="background: transparent; border:
            1px solid rgb(255, 255, 255); font-size: 13px; margin: 0px;
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              style="background: transparent; border: 0px; font-size:
              12px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;
              vertical-align: baseline;">An American bumblebee on a
              coneflower.<span> </span></span><span class="credit"
              style="background: transparent; border: 0px; font-size:
              11px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;
              vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(153, 153, 153);">Adam
              Jones/Danita Delimont Photography/Newscom</span></p>
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        640px; width: 640px; clear: both; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);
        font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-style: normal;
        font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal;
        font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2;
        text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;
        white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;
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          <p style="background: transparent; border: 0px; font-size:
            14px; margin: 1em 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;
            vertical-align: baseline;">Environmental groups today sought
            Endangered Species Act protections for the American
            bumblebee, noting a serious population decline some estimate
            at 89% over the past two decades.</p>
          <p style="background: transparent; border: 0px; font-size:
            14px; margin: 1em 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;
            vertical-align: baseline;">"We're asking President Biden to
            be the hero that steps up and saves the American bumblebee
            from extinction," said Jess Tyler, a staff scientist at the
            Center for Biological Diversity. "It's unthinkable that we
            would carelessly allow this fuzzy, black-and-yellow beauty
            to disappear forever."</p>
          <p style="background: transparent; border: 0px; font-size:
            14px; margin: 1em 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;
            vertical-align: baseline;">The organization joined with the
            Bombus Pollinator Association of Law Students of Albany Law
            School in filing the<span> </span><a
              href="https://www.eenews.net/assets/2021/02/01/document_gw_03.pdf"
              style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-size: 14px;
              vertical-align: baseline; background: transparent; color:
              rgb(153, 0, 0); text-decoration: underline; font-weight:
              700;" moz-do-not-send="true">petition</a><span> </span>with
            the Fish and Wildlife Service.</p>
          <p style="background: transparent; border: 0px; font-size:
            14px; margin: 1em 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;
            vertical-align: baseline;">The petition reports that "in the
            last 20 years, the American bumble bee has vanished from at
            least eight states, mostly in the Northeast, and it is in
            precipitous decline" elsewhere.</p>
          <p style="background: transparent; border: 0px; font-size:
            14px; margin: 1em 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;
            vertical-align: baseline;">"Once the most commonly observed
            bumble bee in the United States, the American bumble bee ...
            continues to decline toward extinction due to the
            disastrous, synergistic impacts of threats including habitat
            loss, pesticides, disease, climate change ... and loss of
            genetic diversity," the petition states.</p>
          <p style="background: transparent; border: 0px; font-size:
            14px; margin: 1em 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;
            vertical-align: baseline;">Urged along by litigation, the
            Fish and Wildlife Service previously listed a distinct
            species, the rusty patched bumblebee, as endangered in 2017.</p>
          <p style="background: transparent; border: 0px; font-size:
            14px; margin: 1em 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;
            vertical-align: baseline;">Once common throughout the
            midwestern and northeastern United States, the rusty patched
            bumblebee has since vanished from 87% of the counties it
            formerly inhabited. Habitat loss, pesticide use, climate
            change and disease have all been identified as threats to
            its continued existence (<a
              href="https://www.eenews.net/stories/1063712793/"
              style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-size: 14px;
              vertical-align: baseline; background: transparent; color:
              rgb(153, 0, 0); text-decoration: underline; font-weight:
              700;" moz-do-not-send="true"><em style="background:
                transparent; border: 0px; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px;
                outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Greenwire</em></a>,
            Aug. 31, 2020).</p>
          <p style="background: transparent; border: 0px; font-size:
            14px; margin: 1em 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;
            vertical-align: baseline;">"It is highly unlikely that any
            one threat has acted to precipitate the decline of the
            American bumble bee, rather a combination of factors creates
            conditions that amplify impacts," the new petition states.</p>
          <p style="background: transparent; border: 0px; font-size:
            14px; margin: 1em 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;
            vertical-align: baseline;">The Trump administration proposed
            listing the Franklin's bumblebee.</p>
          <p style="background: transparent; border: 0px; font-size:
            14px; margin: 1em 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;
            vertical-align: baseline;">According to the Fish and
            Wildlife Service, the species is "thought to have the most
            limited distribution of all known North American bumble bee
            species ... and one of the most limited geographic
            distributions of any bumble bee in the world."</p>
        </section>
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          171, 127); border-image: initial; font-size: 13px; margin:
          0px; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align:
          baseline; display: block; color: rgb(85, 85, 85);"><span
            style="background: transparent; border: 0px; font-size:
            13px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;
            vertical-align: baseline;">Twitter:<span> </span><a
              href="https://twitter.com/MichaelDoyle10" style="margin:
              0px; padding: 0px; font-size: 13px; vertical-align:
              baseline; background: transparent; color: rgb(109, 146,
              48); text-decoration: none; font-weight: 700;"
              moz-do-not-send="true">@MichaelDoyle10</a></span><span
            style="background: transparent; border-width: 0px 0px 0px
            1px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial;
            border-bottom-style: initial; border-left-style: solid;
            border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial;
            border-bottom-color: initial; border-left-color: rgb(102,
            102, 102); border-image: initial; font-size: 13px; margin:
            0px 0px 0px 0.65em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px
            0.65em; vertical-align: baseline;">Email:<span> </span><a
              href="mailto:mdoyle@eenews.net" style="margin: 0px;
              padding: 0px; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline;
              background: transparent; color: rgb(109, 146, 48);
              text-decoration: none; font-weight: 700;"
              moz-do-not-send="true">mdoyle@eenews.net</a><br>
            <br>
          </span>
          <pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">-- 
Dr. David W. Inouye
Professor Emeritus
Department of Biology
University of Maryland

Principal Investigator
Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory</pre>
          <br>
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