This Nov. 6, 2011 photo shows a bee colony run by Adam Finkelstein and Kelly Rausch who are are raising queen bees in Frederick, Md., in attempts to reverse colony collapse disorder. Linda Davidson/AP

Saturday marks the 40th anniversary of the Endangered Species Act being signed into law; the occasion, however, is being eclipsed by criticisms about whether government agencies are doing enough to protect some species – bees, especially.

A lawsuit, the first to invoke the Endangered Species Act (ESA) in defense of bees, was filed in March by major U.S. beekeeping associations against the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) over its decision to register a new pesticide called sulfoxaflor.

Sulfoxaflor is a new chemical in the same category as controversial pesticides known as neonicotinoids – which scientific studies have shown contribute to mass bee deaths. Several neonicotinoids have been banned in the European Union.

The Pollinator Stewardship Council, American Honey Producers Association, National Honey Bee Advisory Board and the American Beekeeping Federation are among the groups that aim to challenge the EPA's decision in federal court.

On Dec. 13, the Center for Food Safety (CFS), a national nonprofit public interest and environmental advocacy organization, filed a legal brief in support of the lawsuit.

The disturbing trend of bee deaths, known as Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), has led to mass die-offs of pollinators in recent years and could cause an agricultural disaster.

Without pollinators, many fruits and vegetables, such as apples, cucumbers, broccoli, onions and almonds, will also disappear.

"Our country is facing widespread bee colony collapse, and scientists are pointing to pesticides like sulfoxaflor as the cause," Attorney Janette Brimmer of Earthjustice, the public interest law organization representing the groups, said in a press release. "The effects will be devastating to our nation's food supply and also to the beekeeping industry, which is struggling because of toxic pesticides."



Congress passed the Endangered Species Act (ESA) in 1973, recognizing that America's natural heritage is of "esthetic, ecological, educational, recreational, and scientific value to our Nation and its people." It added that many native plants and animals were in danger of becoming extinct.

As CFS explained in its legal brief, scientists have linked the drastic declines in honey bees and other pollinators to neonicotinoids, like sulfoxaflor, which the EPA has determined to be "very highly toxic" to bees.