By Nate Reagle, Clean Energy Program Advocate, and Melissa Farr, Senior Distributed Organizer, Sierra Club Pennsylvania Chapter
Great news: The Sierra Club Pennsylvania Chapter has started a native pollinator conservation initiative!
Why should you care? Pollinators like bees, butterflies, moths, flies, beetles, and wasps are vital to both our natural ecosystems and agricultural industry. Many native plants are dependent on native pollinators, including Pennsylvania’s valuable black cherry trees. Simply put, the Commonwealth’s natural resources rely on native pollinators to thrive.
About one-third of the food consumed by humans is enabled by pollinators. Pennsylvania grows many specialty crops like tomatoes, squash, and blueberries, all of which benefit from buzz pollination provided by native pollinators rather than non-native honey bees.
Unfortunately, insect pollinators are in decline across the country and in Pennsylvania. Thankfully, there are easy ways to help out. We have launched a pollinator conservation webpage to provide education and advocacy resources for our supporters and volunteers.
There are new handouts on the website covering a few main insect conservation topics. The Native Plants for Pollinators handout includes information about the importance of native plants for our pollinators. The Pollinator and Insect Community Science Opportunities handout is full of information about fun and easy ways for anyone to get involved in collecting pollinator data for scientific programs. The Conserving Pennsylvania's Pollinators handout explains the importance, diversity, and status of our native pollinators. We invite you to download and share these resources in your community.
Because education and advocacy go hand-in-hand, the webpage also links to action alerts about current state legislation that would benefit pollinators in Pennsylvania. Don’t miss out on these opportunities to let your elected officials know how much you care about our state’s amazing invertebrates.
There’s no time to waste. Let’s make sure we leave a legacy of beautiful butterflies, bees, and lightning bugs for future generations to enjoy!
This blog was included as part of the May 2026 Sylvanian newsletter. Please click here to check out more articles from this edition!