The Franklin鈥檚 bumble bee was last seen in its native habitat in 2006. But given the rugged, remote terrain along the Oregon-California border that doesn鈥檛 necessarily mean it鈥檚 extinct.
鈥淏oots on the ground can only get you so far as far as finding these critters. They could very well be out there and we鈥檙e just not looking in the right places or potentially at the right times,鈥� says Jeff Everett, the species lead for the Franklin鈥檚 bumble bee with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service office in Portland.
While many bees live across the continental U.S., the Franklin鈥檚 bumble bee occupies just 13,000 acres in Douglas, Jackson and Josephine Counties in Oregon and Siskiyou and Trinity Counties in California. It鈥檚 the narrowest range of any bumble bee in North America and possibly the world, Everett says.
Protection under the ESA will open up funding and resources to try to find and protect Franklin鈥檚 bumble bees. Since they鈥檙e considered 鈥渉abitat generalists鈥� and their food sources are largely intact, the listing will not include a critical habitat designation under the federal environmental law that brings with it higher environmental protections.
Leaving out habitat protections is the wrong approach to protect them, according to Rich Hatfield, senior conservation biologist with the Xerces Society.
鈥淭his species has the smallest distribution of any bumble bee potentially in the world, and to say that it doesn鈥檛 require some sort of special habitat, I think, is way too early to make that assessment,鈥� Hatfield says. 鈥淲ithout critical habitat, it鈥檚 hard to imagine how we move forward in terms of protecting the species or giving it a chance to recover should it be rediscovered.
The efforts to protect the Franklin鈥檚 bumble bee began in 2010 when the species was petitioned for protection by the Xerces Society and UC Davis professor and bumble bee researcher Robbin Thorp, who died in 2019.
was published Aug. 23 and will go into effect in 30 days. It鈥檚 the second bumble bee to be listed under the ESA after the rusty patched bumble bee.
Everett, with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, is optimistic about the enthusiasm to protect and conserve bees, including the new resources to find the extremely rare Franklin鈥檚 bumble bee.
鈥淥ne of the most important things we can do for Franklin鈥檚 is find it on the landscape,鈥� Everett says. 鈥淥nce we know where they鈥檙e at we鈥檒l be able to do more to meaningfully apply habitat conservation and habitat restoration actions that鈥檒l benefit the critter.鈥�
