The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission (PTC) is dedicated to doing more to protect pollinators. It has implemented pilot projects to work toward implementing pollinator habitat along their roadside.
A pollinator is anything that helps carry pollen from one flower to another, allowing plants to become fertilized and produce fruits, seeds, and young plants.
Although some plants are self-pollinating, almost 90% of all plant species need the help of insects and animals to transfer pollen.
There are many native pollinators in Pennsylvania:
Plant pollination by insects is essential to human health, global food webs, and protection of biodiversity. Native pollinators assist plants in providing food and cover for wildlife, preventing erosion and keeping waterways clean.
Pennsylvania has one of the most diverse, pollinator-dependent cropping systems in the United States, producing an array of fruit and vegetable crops that benefit from the services of pollinators.
Like other animals, pollinators require food and shelter as their most basic, yet important needs. However, these very basic needs are complicated greatly by several factors:
On top of these already specific conditions for survival and growth, proper food and shelter is rapidly becoming difficult to find due to:
This decline in pollinators puts the food chain, human health, and biodiversity at risk.
According to the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) – though there are not currently any threatened or endangered insects listed in Pennsylvania – there are 18 butterflies and one bee (rusty patched bumblebee) listed as critically imperiled, imperiled, or vulnerable.
Extinct is when a species doesn’t exist anywhere anymore, while extirpated is when a species doesn’t exist in a location it used to, but still does exist elsewhere.
