A long-awaited and potentially vast critical habitat designation for the endangered rusty patched bumblebee is now getting its final White House review.
Pushed by litigation and a court-monitored deadline, the Fish and Wildlife Service sent the bee’s critical habitat map Monday to the small but powerful Office of Management and Budget unit that screens all of an administration’s regulatory actions. A deadline for action passed at the end of January.
With the rusty patched bumblebee inhabiting a number of Midwestern states, the critical habitat mapping has been both complicated and closely watched. More than 62,000 public comments were submitted in response to the FWS proposal made in 2024.
“The Fish and Wildlife Service has continued to push this back and push this back,” Lori Ann Burd, an attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity and director of the group’s environmental health program, said Tuesday. “So we’re very eager to see a final rule get published, and we’re very much hoping that they do not eliminate any of the habitat that they designated as critical in their proposal.”
