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Pulling back the curtains on wage-theft enforcement in MN; Trump's latest attack is on RFK, Jr; NM LGBTQ+ equality group endorses 2024 'Rock Star' candidates; Michigan's youth justice reforms: Expanded diversion, no fees.

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Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says rebuilding Baltimore's Key Bridge will be challenging and expensive. An Alabama Democrat flips a state legislature seat and former Connecticut senator Joe Lieberman dies at 82.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Meet the Rusty Patched Bumble Bee – Before It's Too Late

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Tuesday, September 29, 2015   

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. – Protections could be on the way for a bumblebee that used to be commonly found in parts of South Dakota and across the Upper Midwest, but is now threatened with extinction.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has just begun a yearlong review to determine if an Endangered Species Act listing is warranted for the rusty patched bumble bee.

Sarina Jepsen, endangered species program director for The Xerces Society, says the bee is facing a number of threats – including habitat loss, pesticides and diseases passed on from commercially-managed bumblebees.

"There's quite a bit of concern among people who study bumblebees that commercial bumblebees are spreading diseases to wild bumblebees, and that it is leading to their decline," she says.

Jepsen says the rusty patched bumble bee has disappeared from 87 percent of its historic range – and even where it still does exist, its populations are as much as 95 percent smaller than they were just a few decades ago.

According to Jepsen, the rusty patched bumble bee is an excellent pollinator of wildflowers and numerous crops including apple and alfalfa. She notes the push for their listing comes as the federal government is looking to protect bees and other pollinators such as the monarch butterfly.

"Earlier this year, the White House released a strategy to protect native bees, honey bees and monarch butterflies," she says. "I think the attention from the White House that has been given to pollinators has been really great for native pollinator conservation."

The National Strategy to Promote the Health of Honey Bees and Other Pollinators is focused on protecting, restoring and enhancing their habitat.


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