VIRGINIA — There’s a lot of buzz about a conservation strategy aimed at protecting the rusty-patched bumblebee (Bombus affinis). The strategy centers around a section of the Endangered Species Act focused on promoting proactive conservation actions. Rarely has this been the focus of previous Forest Service consultations, making this a milestone in collaboration between agencies that share goals for species conservation.

The team in the collaborative process included threatened and endangered species regional biologists for both agencies, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service species recovery leads, Monongahela and George Washington and Jefferson national forests biologists, and other biologists with knowledge of the species and survey experience. After considering such factors as threats to species, habitat needs, scale of the project, and possible recovery actions, the team decided to collaborate on the rusty-patched bumblebee (which was listed as endangered in 2017) on the Monongahela and George Washington and Jefferson national forests in West Virginia and Virginia as the pilot project to apply the 2016 streamlined consultation guidance.  

In 2019, the team began a pilot project to develop a proactive conservation program for rusty-patched bumblebees. The team used the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s 2016 Streamlined Consultation Guidance for Restoration and Recovery Projects. Consultation is the mechanism under the Endangered Species Act that helps ensure agency activities will not jeopardize the continued existence of listed species or significantly alter their critical habitats.

The rusty-patched bumblebee used to be quite prevalent across 31 states in the upper Midwest and eastern U.S. Today it occupies only a small portion of its former range. Prior to federal listing in 2017, the species saw dramatic declines, likely due to pathogens and pesticides exposure, however, habitat loss and degradation, climate change and other factors also contributed.    

The team followed the 2016 streamlined consultation guidance to develop conservation measures that can be used by forest managers to inform the design and implementation of Forest Service actions that will not only minimize or avoid these negative impacts but also will improve habitat for the species.

Studies show that the rusty-patched bumblebee and other species that use forested habitat and adjacent areas benefit from land management actions that improve the diversity and abundance of pollinator plant species. Timber management, prescribed fire, targeted non-native invasive species control and roadside maintenance all contribute to a positive habitat for bumblebees. Therefore, routine Forest Service activities on the Monongahela and George Washington and Jefferson national forests have the potential to meaningfully contribute to the recovery of the rusty-patched bumblebee and restoration of habitat on the forests, although negative effects to individual bees are also possible.

These collaborative efforts by both agencies culminated in July, when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service signed the programmatic biological opinion for the rusty-patched bumblebee. The biological opinion covers Forest Service actions that provide conservation benefits for the bee, including prescribed fire, timber management, roadside maintenance, road decommissioning, permanent grassland and shrubland management, and non-native invasive species control. In addition, there is a suite of conservation measures identified for each action, that, when implemented, will help the Forest Service play a greater role in rusty-patched bumblebee conservation by taking proactive steps to recover the species, rather than just mitigating negative impacts.

The streamlined consultation guidance provided the foundation needed to rethink past approaches to species conservation. It paved the way for the Forest Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to develop a strategy to be both more efficient at meeting our regulatory responsibilities under the Endangered Species Act and more proactive in managing for the rusty-patched bumblebee habitat.