Taking a species’ decline seriously need not mean claiming more certainty than the record contains. The September 2016 proposal to list the rusty patched bumble bee warned that many populations recorded since 2000 had not been reconfirmed since the early 2000s. They might no longer persist. That caution belongs at the center of an honest account of conservation. [2016-22799]

The agency reported 845 populations from observations during 1900–1999 and 69 during 2000–2015. Neither figure counts individual bees, and the later figure is not a verified inventory of surviving populations. An ethical reading is that uncertainty should inform stewardship rather than disappear behind a reassuring total. Describing the evidence accurately respects both the seriousness of decline and the limits of knowledge. [2016-22799]

The Fish and Wildlife Service subsequently determined endangered status in its January 11 final rule, with effectiveness scheduled for February 10, 2017. This January 16 holiday retrospective looks back to that publication. The rule describes conservation through recognition, recovery action and cooperation among public agencies and others; those are means of responding, not proof that the species has recovered. [2017-00195]

Responsibility also involves distinguishing a decision from work still needed. Critical habitat was not determinable in the final rule. The proposal’s observations and the final legal determination are stages of one agency process, not two independent demonstrations of success. Their practical lesson is modest: a commitment to protection can coexist with unresolved information, without turning that commitment into a promise about every remaining population. [2017-00195][2016-22799]

Source documents

  1. Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants; Endangered Species Status for Rusty Patched Bumble Beehttps://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2017-01-11/html/2017-00195.htm
  2. Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants; Endangered Species Status for Rusty Patched Bumble Beehttps://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2016-09-22/html/2016-22799.htm