Hunter
11/30/24
A proposal to protect the endangered rusty patched bumblebee by designating 1.6 million acres across six states includes a large part of Johnson County.
The Gazette reports the proposed protected land is mostly on private land within urban areas, which the US Fish and Wildlife Service says are critical to the bee’s survival.
The proposed area in Johnson County is mostly on the northeast side of the county, with almost all the land east of Interstate 380 and Highway 218 — reaching up to parts of Lake Macbride State Park and down to Iowa City. The area also includes most of the Coralville Lake and the cities of Coralville and University Heights. The just-over 45,900 acres includes nearly 30,400 acres of private land, a little under 11,400 acres of federal land, and over 4100 acres of land owned by the state, local governments and school districts.
Kraig McPeek is project leader for the Fish and Wildlife Service’s Illinois-Iowa Ecological Services Field Office. He told the Gazette in order for an area to make the list for the proposal, there had to be at least 50 documented sightings of the rusty patched bumblebee by experts since 2007.