Date: February 13, 2014
Docket No. FWS–R3–ES–2015–0112
Subject: Notice of Intent to Pursue Legal Action for Failure to Make Required Ninety-Day Finding on Petition to List the Rusty Patched Bumble Bee as Endangered
Submitted by: The Natural Resources Defense Council and the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation
On behalf of the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation and the Natural Resources Defense Council ("NRDC"), we are writing to inform you that we intend to pursue legal action against the U.S. Department of the Interior, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and agency officials acting in their official capacities for failure to respond to a petition to list the rusty patched bumble bee (Bombus affinis) as an endangered species pursuant to the Endangered Species Act ("ESA"), 16 U.S.C. § 153 1, et seq. See 16 U.S.C. § 1533(b)(3)(A) ("To the maximum extent practicable, within 90 days after receiving the petition of an interested person ... to add a species to ... the lists ... the Secretary shall make a finding as to whether the petition presents substantial scientific or commercial information indicating that the petition action may be warranted."). This letter is provided pursuant to the sixty-day notice requirements of the citizen suit provision of the ESA, to the extent such notice is deemed necessary by a court.