Bumble bee to receive ESA listing

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service published the final rule listing the rusty patched bumble bee (Bombus affinis) as an endangered species this week. USFWS first proposed the listing in September 2016. Although some bee species have been listed under the ESA in Hawaii, this is the first designation for a species in the continental U.S. USFWS determined the rusty patched bumble bee population has declined by 87 percent since 2000. The bees are currently found in 13 states and one Canadian province, while, as recently as the late 1990s, they were common in 28 states and two provinces.

Read more at The New York Times.