BY: JOHNATHAN HETTINGER – JULY 27, 2023 5:50 AM

EPA says three widely used pesticides driving hundreds of endangered species toward extinction

Hands hold coated corn in a corn field near Mansfield, Illinois, on Tuesday, May 30, 2023 (Darrell Hoemann/Investigate Midwest).

Clay Bolt went looking for a rusty patched bumblebee, he would head to a city. The wildlife photographer said his best bet would be Minneapolis or Madison, Wisconsin, in a botanical garden or even someone’s backyard — as long as it was far away from crop fields and neonicotinoid pesticides.

“It’s kind of ironic. Cities have become a refuge for some of these most endangered pollinators,” said Bolt, manager of pollinator conservation for the World Wildlife Fund. “Thousands of acres of monocultural row crops leave little to no room for most pollinators.”

The rusty patched bumblebee has seen populations plummet with the rise of industrial agriculture and was given…