Let's turn the question on its head. Given an actual locally adapted population, what is the likelihood it can be preserved? 

> The importance of natural protected areas for the preservation of locally adapted subspecies (or local genotype) of honey bees has been recently emphasized in the literature. In western Europe, initiatives have emerged to protect the native subspecies i.e., the Western European dark bee, Apis mellifera mellifera (Hymenoptera: Apidae). Here, we investigated the honey bee subspecies diversity in a Mediterranean protected area, Calanques National Park, near Marseille, France. We found that the population of honey bees is mainly composed of hybrids between Apis mellifera mellifera and Apis mellifera intermissa. 

So, even if you had a unique population, it is unlikely to remain so in this day and age. The question about locally adapted bees in the US is: how would you even prove they were? Simply because their DNA is "different" does not indicate much. My DNA is different from my neighbors down the street. Am I locally adapted? My ancestors came from Palatine Germany in the 1700s, but made no effort to remain "pure." On the other hand, the Palatine Mennonites in this country (USA)  have stayed insular for a long time. Are they locally adapted?—they strongly resemble their ancestors in the old country.

PLB

citations: 

Ropars, L., Affre, L., & Geslin, B. (2021). Morphometric identification of honey bee subspecies reveals a high proportion of hybrids within a Mediterranean protected area. Journal of Apicultural Research, 60(5), 871–874. https://doi.org/10.1080/00218839.2021.1950973

Prince, B., Low, T., Agatep, R., Spriggs, B., Leduc, R., Kraljevic, M., ... & Wright, N. (2024). P429: Epidemiological assessment of autosomal recessive founder mutations in the Canadian Mennonite population. Genetics in Medicine Open, 2.

             ***********************************************
The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software.  For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html