A number can describe a record without describing the present. The Fish and Wildlife Service’s September 2016 proposal counted 69 rusty patched bumble bee populations recorded during 2000–2015. It did not establish that all 69 were still present when the agency published its final endangered-species rule on January 11, 2017. [2017-00195][2016-22799]

The comparison was with 845 populations recorded during 1900–1999. These totals concern populations or occurrences, not individual insects, and cover unequal periods. More importantly, the proposal expressly warned that many of the later records had not been reconfirmed since the early 2000s. Some of those populations might no longer persist. Repeating the later total as a current census would discard that warning. [2016-22799]

The final document answers a different question: what legal determination did the agency make? It determined endangered status for Bombus affinis under the U.S. Endangered Species Act and scheduled effectiveness for February 10. The January 16 holiday coverage date is a retrospective reference point, not the date of a new announcement or proof that the new protection was already operative. [2017-00195]

Nor does the listing resolve every geographic question. The final summary describes occurrence in the eastern and Midwestern United States and Ontario, but this U.S. action is not a Canadian domestic designation. The agency also found critical habitat not determinable. The proposal and final rule therefore provide a population-history account and a legal decision within one evidence chain, rather than independent confirmation of survival everywhere previously recorded. [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