A first-of-its-kind, comprehensive report released Wednesday from researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder determined that Colorado’s native pollinating insects are in peril as a result of human activities.
The report summarized research on native pollinators — like high country bumble bees in Colorado — and found that in the last 35 years, populations of some pollinator species in the state have dropped by more than half.
This fact is leading scientists and environmentalists to petition for about 20% of Colorado’s 24 native bumblebee species to receive federal protection under the Endangered Species Act due to a significant decline in their populations.
Entomologist Adrian Carper of the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at CU Boulder and the CU Museum of Natural History, is one of the authors.
“That’s a huge alarm call, and that’s only for species we have good data for,” Carper said in a news release, adding “it is likely an underestimate of the danger Colorado’s native pollinating insects are facing.”