[Pollinator] Endangered Species Act protection sought for Franklin's bumble bee

[Sarina Jepsen]

  *Group seeks endangered species protection for bumblebee native to
  Oregon and California*

http://www.startribune.com/nation/97007759.html

*By JEFF BARNARD ,* Associated Press

Last update: June 23, 2010 - 3:46 PM

GRANTS PASS, Ore. - A conservation group filed a petition Wednesday to 
add a bumblebee from Southern Oregon and Northern California to the 
endangered species list.

The Society for Invertebrate Conservation and University of California 
at Davis entomologist Robbin Thorp formally petitioned the U.S. Fish and 
Wildlife Service to protect the insect ­ called a Franklin's bumblebee ­ 
under the Endangered Species Act.

Scott Hoffman Black, executive director of the of the Xerces Society in 
Portland, said the petition is part of an effort to reverse the decline 
of bumblebees and other native bees around the world due to habitat 
loss, pesticides and diseases spilling out of commercial greenhouses.

The group is preparing petitions to protect other bumblebee species as 
well. The Franklin's bee was chosen for this petition because 
documentation of its decline is more detailed than for other species. 
Thorp found 94 Franklin's bumblebees in 1994, but he has seen none since 
2006.

Farmers often hire honeybee keepers to pollinate crops, but hives have 
been decimated by a mysterious honeybee killer known as colony collapse 
disorder.

So some farmers are turning to bumblebees to pollinate, especially for 
hothouse crops such as tomatoes, peppers and strawberries, and field 
crops such as blueberries, cranberries, raspberries, squash and 
watermelon. Bumblebees pollinate about 15 percent of all crops grown in 
the nation, worth $3 billion.

"The decline in Franklin's bumblebee should serve as an alarm that we 
are starting to lose important pollinators," Black said. "We hope that 
Franklin's bumblebee will remind us to prevent pollinators across the 
U.S. from sliding toward extinction."

While many native pollinators have seen declines related to loss of 
habitat and pesticides, Franklin's bumblebee and some related species 
have suffered deep and sudden declines that Thorp has theorized may be 
related to a fungus that was inadvertently transported with bumblebees 
brought from Europe for commercial use.

Researchers at the University of Illinois are working to see if the 
fungus known as nosema bombus caused declines in a number of related 
bumblebees, including the once-common Western bumblebee, the 
rusty-patched bumblebee, and the yellow-banded bumblebee in the Northeast.

Earlier this year, the Xerces Society and other conservation groups and 
scientists called on federal agricultural authorities to start 
regulating shipments of commercially domesticated bumblebees to protect 
wild bumblebees from diseases threatening their survival.

A 2007 National Academy of Sciences report blamed the decline of 
pollinators around the world on a combination of habitat loss, 
pesticides, pollution and diseases spilling out of greenhouses using 
commercial bumblebees.

___________________________________________
*The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation*

The Xerces Society is an international, nonprofit
organization that protects wildlife through the
conservation of invertebrates and their habitat.
To join the Society, make a contribution, or read
about our work, please visit www.xerces.org

Sarina Jepsen
Endangered Species Program Director
4828 SE Hawthorne Blvd. Portland, OR 97215
tel: 503-232-6639 fax: 503-233-6794
email: sarina at xerces.org
___________________________________________
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