Bee Protections May Sting Pesticide Use, Construction Work

A federal decision to list a bumblebee species as endangered could have big impacts on pesticide use and construction activity in the eastern U.S.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service decision to list the rusty patched bumblebee as endangered is scheduled to take effect Feb. 10. It is the first bee species in the continental U.S. to be listed, coming less than four months after the listing of seven species of bees in Hawaii.

The Fish and Wildlife Service singled out habitat loss, pesticides, pathogens and small population dynamics as the apparent causes of a precipitous decline in ...