(soft whooshing) (Clay) I had this epiphany that I can make the lives of millions of organisms better.

-Mm.

-And that’s not nothing, you know, that counts for something, and that gives me a lot of hope.

(Shane) Clay Bolt is manager of pollinator conservation for the World Wildlife Fund.

But his first love is documenting the lives of insects with his camera.

-(hip-hop music) -(camera shutter clicking) ♪ He started focusing on bees in 2012, when a lot of folks were sounding the alarm about honey bee populations.

-(insects chirring) -(birds chirping) (Clay) I set up my camera and imagined myself photographing honey bees for the rest of the day.

But instead, what I photographed were these two small, beautifully colored sweat bees.

Each one was smaller than a grain of rice.

And my mind was blown.

(mellow music) (Shane) Clay fell in love with native bees... (bees buzzing) ...especially bumble bees.

♪ One species captured his imagination: the rusty-patched bumble bee, a species that used to be common across the Eastern U.S. (Clay) So, one of the sort of alarming things that happened starting in the mid-’90s is that the rusty-patched disappeared from 90% of its habitat.

To the point where now if you find a rusty-patch, in a lot of its range it’s like a celebrity sighting, but this was once an incredibly common bee.

(somber music) (Shane) His quest drew him here to Madison, Wisconsin, where he saw his first rusty-patched in 2014, just a few feet from where we’re standing right now.

-(bees buzzing) -(gasps) (Clay) It’s a rusty-patched bumble bee!

-Oh!

-So, this is awesome.

This is a really rare bee.

(Shane) So, how can you tell that it’s rusty-patched?

(Clay) Well, it has this-- you can kind of see this rusty band underneath the abdomen there.

But yeah, this is one of the rarest bumble bees -in North America.

-Wow.

(Clay) It’s really special to see-- see this here.

(soft music) (Shane) It did feel...special.

♪ (bee buzzing) ♪ I could be projecting, but it seemed like even the other bees could tell this one was something a little different.

(wings flapping) -(bee buzzing) -(whooshing) After seeing his first rusty-patched in 2014, Clay put his passion to work.

(bright music) (Clay) I worked with friends to create a documentary.

(camera shutter clicking) I photographed the bee, I started writing articles, and that ultimately led, at least in part, to the bee being listed on the Endangered Species Act.

(wings flapping) (Shane) In 2017, the rusty-patched became the first North American bee species to receive federal protection.

But there are 48 other bumble bee species in the U.S., and more than a quarter of those are in serious trouble.

(Clay) Yeah, so, there’s really three main things that are primarily impacting bumble bees.

Habitat loss, pesticides, and climate change is a big factor, actually.

(whooshing) (Shane) It’s not just bumble bees.

Researchers estimate that over half of North America’s 4,000 bee species are in decline, and almost a quarter are threatened with extinction.

Some of the steepest population declines began in the 1990s.

(Clay) And this coincides with the release of a class of systemic pesticides called neonicotinoids, or neonics for short.

(mysterious music) (Shane) Neonics are insecticides that attack insects’ nervous systems.

And today, they’re just about everywhere.

♪ (Clay) Nearly 100% of field corn that’s produced in the United States has neonic-treated seeds.

Soy, wheat, and a single neonic-coated seed has enough active ingredients to kill 80,000 bees.

-Wow.

-So, no wonder we’re having these problems with our pollinators.

♪