Robbin Thorp, wearing a bright yellow T-shirt with a bumblebee
printed across the front, drives his white truck along a road on
Mount Ashland in southern Oregon. He steers past the base of a ski
lift and rolls to a stop beside an alpine meadow. He cuts the engine
and steps out into the sunshine.
Under a sky of blue streaked white with clouds, the meadow blazes
with pink and yellow flowers. But Thorp focuses on something other
than the fine weather and quiet scenery. He is on a quest.
Thorp is a retired entomologist (a scientist who studies insects).
He is searching for the bee pictured on his shirt: Franklin’s
bumblebee. It looks much like any other of North America’s
forty-six species of bumblebee—big, fat, and fuzzy. Unlike other
The Last
Franklin’s
Bumblebee
1
People often ask the value of Franklin’s bumblebee.
In terms of a direct contribution to the grand scale of
human economies, perhaps not much, but no one has
measured its contribution in those terms. However, in
the grand scheme of our planet and its environmental
values, I would say it is priceless.
—Robbin Thorp, entomologist
6
Where Have All the Bees Gone?
