[Pollinator] US Fish and Wildlife Service Pushed to Protect Rusty Patched Bumble Bee

[Matthew Shepherd]

The rusty patched bumble bee is now featured on the wrapper of an
Endangered Species Chocolate bar. We’re hoping that’s not the only place
you’ll be able to see one in the years ahead. This bumble bee is an
important pollinator of prairie wildflowers, and crops such as cranberries,
blueberries, and apples. Once common across the Upper Midwest and Eastern
Seaboard, in recent years the rusty patched bumble bee has been lost from
87% of its historic range.



More than a year ago, the Xerces Society petitioned the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service requesting Endangered Species Act protection for this bee.
The law requires that the Secretary of the Interior must make an initial
response—a simple statement of whether or not the petition presents
sufficient information to support the requested protection—within 90 days,
and if the Secretary finds that protection may be warranted, a decision
within one year of whether or not the species should be protected. Neither
of these deadlines has been met. Hence, the Xerces Society, with legal
representation from the Natural Resources Defense Council, is taking the
next step.



Today (Tuesday, 5/13) we filed a complaint in the D.C. courts against the
Department of the Interior and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service asking
them to take action on the petition and grant ESA protection to the rusty
patched bumble bee. You can read more about this bee and see a copy of the
complaint filed on our behalf by NRDC at
http://www.xerces.org/2014/05/13/rusty-patched-bumble-bee-threatened-with-extinction/
.



Matthew



________



*Matthew Shepherd*, Communications Director



*The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation     *Protecting the Life
that Sustains Us



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




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