What is the Bumble Bee Recovery Program? Since the 1990s, bumble bee numbers have been plummeting, and that spells ecological disaster. Ninety per cent of all flowering plants — including most of the fruits and vegetables in your fridge — need these pollinators in order to reproduce.
Until the causes of these declines can be reversed, conservation breeding and reintroduction is the only way to safeguard at-risk bumble bees. Today, WPC is the only organization in Canada rebuilding wild bee populations through conservation breeding. Thanks to recent breakthroughs, we’ve figured out how to dramatically increase the number of queens we produce. Once they’re released into the wild, they can establish their own colonies, producing hundreds of pollinators to sustain the ecosystems around them.
If you’ve been keeping up with Wildlife Preservation Canada’s work, you already know that pollinators are both crucial and vulnerable. With a litany of threats and a growing list of imperiled species, it can at times seem as though we are failing our pollinators.
Yet another recent publication reinforces the dire state of North America’s pollinators. This past March, a continent-wide assessment of almost 1,600 pollinating species, headed by Dr. Tara Cornelisse of NatureServe, found an elevated extinction risk in over one-fifth of native North American pollinators. However, not all pollinator groups are equally imperiled.
This study found that, of all insect pollinators (butterflies, moths, bees, beetles, and flower flies), the group with the greatest proportion of imperiled species are bees, estimating that around 35% of North America’s bees are considered at risk of extinction. Some sub-groupings of bees are worse off than others. Sweat bees, squash bees, and mason bees, for example, more closely resemble the state of pollinators as a whole, with around one-fifth of species in each group being at-risk. Leafcutter and digger bees are alarmingly imperiled, with 46% and 43% of species considered at risk of extinction, respectively. Bumble bees unfortunately are similarly imperiled, with around 39% of species being at risk. North American butterflies, while not as imperiled as bees, are estimated to have around 20% of their species at risk of extinction.
The threats to pollinators as outlined in this recent study are the familiar culprits. Climate change and agriculture are the top threats to both bees as well as pollinators in general. There are other stressors acting against pollinators, such as invasive species, pollution and disease, and their effects combine with each other making matters worse. Climate change and agriculture, however, singularly affect the most pollinating species out of all threats. The ubiquity of these threats both taxonomically and geographically highlight our continued mismanagement of natural and human-altered systems, and our need to change course.
The Endangered rusty-patched bumble bee, last observed in Canada in 2009 at Pinery Provincial Park. Photo by Sheila Colla.
While the threats to pollinators are indeed widespread and multifaceted, we are not powerless in the face of their decline.
Conservation science does not exist simply to tell us which species are headed to extinction; it also exists to prescribe and advise actions.
Although this recent assessment reiterates a bleak reality for North America’s pollinators, this knowledge is necessary for informing management and recovery efforts. Moreover, while this recent knowledge provides much needed details, the overall message is something we’ve known for quite some time. Here in Canada, we’ve witnessed the decline of our own pollinators, such as the Karner blue butterfly and the rusty-patched bumble bee, which have not been observed in the country since 1991 and 2009, respectively. Even in recent years, we’ve seen the list of at-risk bumble bees grow in Canada, with the American bumble bee and both subspecies of western bumble bee added to the federal Species-At-Risk-Act in 2023. Action needs to be immediate and comprehensive if we are to slow the rate of pollinator decline.
Left: The Endangered Taylor’s checkerspot butterfly, once believed to be extirpated from Canada before rediscovery in 2005. Photo by Elise Younie. Right: The Endangered mottled duskywing butterfly. Photo by Grace Tiessen.
Despite this most recent research, hope is not lost for our native pollinators. Groups across North America continue to research, protect, recover, and advocate for all kinds of species, including pollinators. Since 2013, Wildlife Preservation Canada has been providing direct, hands-on care to at-risk pollinators through its Native Pollinator Initiative and has yielded exciting results.
In British Columbia, our program for the Endangered Taylor’s checkerspot butterfly has seen successful breeding and releases since 2015. Their population and range have been growing thanks to the efforts of our B.C. team and their colleagues. Here in Ontario, we have been involved with a team dedicated to the reintroduction of the Endangered mottled duskywing butterfly in Pinery Provincial Park, where it was once extirpated. This species has been making a comeback at Pinery as a result of the team’s efforts, further showcasing the potential for pollinator recovery through direct action. Also in Ontario, we have our Bumble Bee Recovery Team, which has been collecting annual monitoring data across the province and researching breeding methods for the Special Concern yellow-banded bumble bee. Our bumble bee breeding efforts are progressing closer to releases each year, and our hope is that the methods we are developing will be transferable to other at-risk bumble bees in the future.
Pollinator conservation also needs you!
Individual actions, however small, are a huge help. Something as simple as planting a few native flowers in your yard, or even in a window planter, can provide pollinators with a food source in a fragmented urban landscape. If you’re able, consider naturalizing your property or leaving a portion of your yard undisturbed – meaning leaving grass unmowed, and woody debris and leaves on the ground. Doing so provides nesting habitat for pollinators around you. The best part is that these small actions are not specific to one pollinator! Bees, butterflies, flower flies and beetles alike will benefit from these efforts. Habitat is key to conservation, and that includes the spaces we occupy as well.
Although the situation for North America’s pollinators is less than ideal, this recent research is crucial for future conservation efforts and reminds us that it’s time to step up—consider it a much-needed wake-up call! Through research, monitoring, community science, advocacy, and direct, hands-on care, we at Wildlife Preservation Canada remain committed to our part in pollinator conservation. Everyone has a role to play, so please support our pollinators in any way you can!
The Special Concern yellow-banded bumble bee. Once common throughout its Canadian range, it has suffered significant declines in southern parts of the country. Photo by Tiffani Harrison.
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