Conservation Spring forest flowers likely a key to bumble bee survival, Illinois study finds (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) For more than a decade, ecologists have been warning of a downward trend in bumble bee populations across North America, with habitat destruction a primary culprit in those losses. While efforts to preserve wild bees in the Midwest often focus on restoring native flowers to prairies, a new study finds evidence of a steady decline in the availability of springtime flowers in wooded landscapes. “The forest is a really important habitat for bees early in the season that often gets overlooked in pollinator conservation planning.”