We at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service are continually learning about pollinators. We know their populations are changing. We are still in the process of researching them, but because they are often small and solitary, they are difficult to study. But you don’t have to be a pollinator expert to save butterflies and bees. Here are some of the basics about these vital species.
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Roseate spoonbill at Lower Suwannee National Wildlife Refuge in Florida. Credit:Larry A. Woodward/USFWS
“Wildlife photography has become a passion of mine that I have shared with my special-needs daughter, Roland,” says Larry Woodward, deputy manager and wildlife biologist at Lower Suwannee National Wildlife Refuge and Cedar Keys National Wildlife Refuge in Florida. “On a weekly basis, we are together, both with camera in hand, photographing wildlife.”
Karen Little is a botanist and the environmental laboratory manager for specialty gardens and greenhouses at Sul Ross State University in Alpine, Texas. Credit: Al Barrus/USFWS
After years of investigation, four cactus traffickers have been sentenced to a combined total of nine years of probation and more for their role in the illegal harvest, sale and/or transportation of the protected living rock, a thornless cactus. There are several more defendants in this case, and the fight to protect the cactus is ongoing. It’s a felony to export the wild plant outside United States.
Cactus Protected Under CITES »
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