Listed Bumble Bees in the Western US, and What Comes Next
Franklin’s bumble bee (Bombus franklini) was listed as Endangered under the Endangered Species Act in September 2021. Franklin’s is only the second bumble bee listed under the ESA, and only the 9th bee listed overall; more than 1,500 species across many taxa have been listed since the ESA was enacted. Several more species of Bombus native to the Pacific Northwest have been recently petitioned for listing under the ESA and are currently in status review, including Western bumble bee (Bombus occidentalis), Suckley’s cuckoo bumble bee (Bombus suckleyi), and the American bumble bee (Bombus pensylvanicus). Extensive gaps in the understanding of key bumble bee life history characteristics make it difficult to apply meaningful conservation and recovery actions for these species after listing. This presentation will review the status of the listed and petitioned species, discuss what happens after a species is listed, and how these listings could impact the bee keeping community.
Jeff Everett is a Fish and Wildlife Biologist with the US Fish & Wildlife Service in Portland, Oregon, where he serves as the lead biologist for Franklin’s bumble bee and Western bumble bee. He works on a variety of bumble bee ESA listing and recovery projects, and represents the Service on several regional and national pollinator teams. In his spare time, he has worked as the sage-grouse coordinator for the Service for the past 10 years, coordinating the efforts of over a dozen staff throughout the state working to implement state and federal sage-grouse conservation plans; he served on the team which arrived at the not-warranted determination for the species in September 2015. Prior to that he worked on renewable energy development and permitting throughout the Pacific Northwest, and spent the first 10 years of his career with the Service as a private lands biologist in western Montana. Jeff and his wife have four busy kids, two lazy cats, one oblivious rabbit, but no bees.
Jeff has a BS in Environmental Science from the State University of New York at Buffalo.