Recommendations for Research, Policy and Communication

1. Improve baseline information on wild pollinator populations. Comprehensive and accessible information on the population trends of pollinator species and communities is critical to better understanding the status of pollinator populations in Pennsylvania, identifying factors that undermine the health of these populations, and determining where and how resources should be allocated to best support pollinator populations in both agricultural and non-agricultural systems. While considerable data are available regarding managed honey bee colonies and our information on wild bees and butterflies has expanded in recent years, there is a lack of data on the status and trends of most pollinators and a need to find solutions for continued and more efficient monitoring of populations. Included in this is a need to better understand the role of managed pollinators, like honey bees, on native pollinator populations. We also need to better understand how various pollinators are responding to habitat and environmental change. Pollinator population monitoring can be facilitated by: 1) continuing to aggregate information from historical records, 2) developing a streamlined and continuous field monitoring system such as automated platforms, 3) expanding online portals to both capture records and disseminate information, and 4) expanding on community-scientist network initiatives to perform and support these surveys while spreading knowledge and awareness of pollinators.

2. Develop science-based metrics and methods for assessing and improving pollinator habitat in our region. Research has continued to show the importance of quality habitat for supporting healthy and diverse pollinator communities. Improved habitat management thus presents the most straightforward solutions to help pollinators. The public has become more aware of pollinator concerns and thus the numbers of pollinator gardens are expanding and agencies are more aware of the value of pollinator plantings in managed Pennsylvania lands. Many of the guidelines for improving forage and habitat, however, are fairly generalized, and do not necessarily provide clear criteria for where best to focus efforts on improving habitat and which restoration practices will best support pollinator populations. One research priority that would contribute to our understanding of pollinator habitat needs, is how to best design and allocate habitat features and plantings for pollinators. This includes better understanding of:

a) Nutritional ecology, including nutritional needs and plant preferences across a diversity of pollinators to optimize plantings. This would benefit from improved monitoring of pollinator visitation and pollen selection, such as through pollen analysis, community science, or automated approaches.

b) Floral economics, including best recommendations for pollinator preferred floral species that are affordable, non-invasive, preferably native, habitat-appropriate, and available through landscape suppliers. In cases of non-perennials, ornamentals, and non-natives, a better understanding is needed of their relative value for pollinators.

c) Sustainable plant mixes and pollinator plot management, including what plant mixes and management plans are best to sustain planting sites for the long-term with a low effort, and to best optimize space-use. This includes improved monitoring of how pollinator gardens change over time and better information about the benefits of less managed land (e.g., No-mow May, fallow or weedy land).

d) Optimal plantings for agriculture, including consideration of using cover crops, altering crop harvest patterns, or other farm-level management practices as a means of improving pollinator habitat.

e) Best practices for roadside and right-of-way plantings. This should integrate state road management policies and consider how to best plant economically in large areas. As part of this, it will be important to assess the traffic impacts on foraging pollinators, and thus the overall value of planting in different types of roadsides.

e) Optimal plantings for larger land areas. While pollinator planting guidelines are usually designed for a fairly small scale (individual gardens or farms), they should be expanded to better understand how to most effectively create and manage pollinator habitat in natural areas covering a larger portion of our state. In addition to roadsides and right-of-ways, this includes powerlines, forests and natural areas, and urban areas.

3. Identify the pollinator species, communities, and densities that most efficiently pollinate agricultural crops and support natural ecosystems. Multiple studies have demonstrated that wild bees serve as better pollinators for some crops than managed honey bees, while other studies have demonstrated that wild bees and honey bees together provide the best pollination services. Honey bees can compete with native bees, such as bumble bees, and share parasites and pathogens with wild bees, thus these communities should be considered in optimal pollinator community management for pollination services. Improved data is needed on which bees – or combinations of bees – serve as the best pollinators for many Pennsylvania crops and what are the economic thresholds needed for pollination services.

Specifically, more information is needed on the numbers of managed bees (including honey bee colonies, bumble bee colonies, orchard and mason bees) needed to optimize pollination services for different crops and the extent to which Pennsylvania growers can meet their pollination needs from the ecosystems services of wild bee communities. This can be aided by continuing to provide information through educational programs and online resources on landscape limitations for forage availability and thus the need for supplementing pollinator services. Furthermore, there is a need to better understand optimal management of commercial native bees, like orchard bees, mason bees, and bumble bees.

4. Better understand nesting habitat needs for bees. Awareness has increased about the need to not only provide food but places and materials for nesting for bee pollinators. Bee hotels have increased in use and there is increasing discussion of how ground and stem nesting bees might be supported with garden practices. More research is needed, however, on what management practices and landscape designs make a difference, how best to set up these spaces, and the benefits and drawbacks of these efforts.

5. Understand the role of weather and climate on pollinators and pollinator food sources. With its diverse landscape, Pennsylvania hosts a range of microclimates and ecoregions. More research is needed on how weather and climate impact pollinator populations, phenology and physiology, and the health and phenology of their food sources. Natural habitats, public lands, riparian zones, and rights-of-ways will be important habitats and corridors for pollinators as they respond to weather and climate variation. Understanding of best management practices to sustain pollinators as they move through these habitats, such as the value posed by habitat heterogeneity and more complex landscapes during heat events, is needed.

6. Supporting honey bees and beekeepers in Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania has ~6550 beekeepers, the majority of whom have less than 5 colonies and manage these for honey production. Additionally, commercial beekeeper operations in PA provide pollination services both within the state and across the country. PA beekeepers report that 37% of their colonies die each winter, which is lower than the national average but nonetheless represents a significant loss for beekeepers at all scales (see BeeWinterwise data on the Center for Pollinator Research website, https://beesuite.psu.edu/winterwise/ ). Honey bee colony losses are due to a variety of factors, including pesticides, parasites and pathogens, and poor forage. The need for pollination services in honey bees has outpaced the supply, leading to strain on the beekeeping industry that has been exacerbated by disease and collapse of colonies. Continued research is needed on: 1) monitoring and understanding factors contributing to honey bee losses, including early detection approaches, 2) managing pathogens and parasites, with a special focus on Varroa and other mites which lead to considerable colony losses and magnify disease, 3) optimal organic beekeeping management as an alternative to synthetic miticide use given the known resistance to chemical treatments, and 4) providing recommendations for optimal habitat needs for honey bees to beekeepers to understand the number of honey bee colonies that can be successfully supported – and produce large honey crops – by a given landscape.

7. Evaluate the impact of pesticide use on pollinators, their habitat, and forage quality. Increasingly, data suggest that pollinators are exposed to pesticides (insecticide, fungicides, herbicides, and additional ingredients in pesticide formulations) while foraging on flowering plants that are not directly targeted by a pesticide application, but are simply adjacent to a treated crop or area, and that mixes of these can have synergistic lethal effects. Similarly, many sublethal effects of pesticides have been identified in bees. Better understanding how pesticides move through the landscape and are incorporated into growing plants will allow for the development of more targeted and precise pesticide application protocols in agricultural, natural, and urban areas, and roadsides and rights of way. Continued research is needed to understand how these cocktails impact honey bees but also to understand how other pollinators are impacted by pesticides.

Herbicides can reduce growth, flowering, and resource quality of important pollinator plants if they come in contact with these plants through leaching or drift or when they are deliberately oversprayed. Research on the indirect effects of herbicide damage on pollinator-supporting plant species in agricultural, urban, suburban and natural landscapes, as well as on roadsides and rights of way, is needed.

Examples of progress in these areas since the 2016 PA Pollinator Protection Plan:

1. The PA Bee Monitoring Program has been developed to monitor bee populations and the INSECT NET program is building tools for automated monitoring of insect populations, focusing heavily on field-based pollinator monitoring.

2. Pennsylvania State University has been focusing research towards assessing the nutritional needs for several bee species, identifying the most attractive flowering plant species for pollinators, building resources to help beekeepers and others identify the key flowering plants (PSU Honey and Pollen Diagnostic Lab), developing tools to evaluate flowering plant attractiveness for the ornamental plant industry (FloraCount), and tools for beekeepers, landscape architects, growers, conservationists and the public to evaluate pollinator habitat quality (Beescape).

3. The Penn State Master Gardeners have continued to refine and expand the Pollinator Friendly Habitat Certification Program and recommendations for the best plants for different groups of pollinators have been incorporated into pamphlets for outreach events and on the Center for Pollinator Research website.

4. Research in the state in crops has focused on pollinator requirements and pollinator utilization of apples, pumpkins, tomatoes, and blueberries.

5. Pennsylvania State University is studying best practices for placing and managing solitary bee hotels and has documented the diverse nesting needs of bumble bees.

6. Pennsylvania State University has focused on understanding effects of weather and climate on bees, documenting the thermal limits of different pollinator species, biological and environmental factors that contribute to susceptibility, the interaction between temperature, humidity, and other stressors, and the importance of microclimate in design of bee hotels.

7. Pennsylvania State University has been working to understand management of right-of-ways and provide guidance for roadside management for pollinators, such as monarchs.

8. The Penn State Center for Science and the Schools and Center for Pollinator Research collaborated to offer multiple workshops for K-12 teachers and create resources to support learning about pollinators and agriculture, available on the CSATS website and the CPR website under “Resources”.

9. Pennsylvania State University has developed an online tool that allows researchers to readily obtain information on habitat quality (seasonal floral resources, nesting availability for wild bees, pesticide toxic load, weather parameters) through the BeeSpatial tool.

10. Pennsylvania State University has developed multiple resources to support beekeepers, including

    1. Online courses: Beekeeping 101, Beekeeping 102 Organic Honey Bee Colony Management, Beekeeping 201: Honey Bee Breeding Program Design

    2. Online annual seminar series, Beekeeping Around the World

    3. Two advanced multi-week beekeeping courses, offered in a hybrid format with online lectures and discussions and in-person workshops, the “Education about Production and Insemination (EPIC)” program and the “Deep Understanding of Drones Education (DUDE)” program

    4. The establishment of an online dashboard providing information of honey bee colony annual winter losses and beekeeper management strategies: Bee Winterwise

    5. An updated “Beekeeping Basics”, 172 page book describing essential beekeeping practices and providing vibrant and informative photos

    6. Multiple Extension publications and videos describing bee management through Penn State Extension and the Penn State Center for Pollinator Research “Resources” page

The Honey and Pollen Diagnostic Lab, where beekeepers can submit samples to identify the key plants their bees are using and to support beekeepers interested in speciality honey production and marketing

1. Develop an annual meeting of Pennsylvania Pollinator Protection Plan Task Force and Advisory Board members. This meeting will facilitate communication, resource sharing, the development of new collaborations, and ensure that the P4 is regularly updated to reflect current information, opportunities and challenges.

2. Develop videos highlighting aspects of the Pennsylvania Pollinator Protection Plan and recommendations for best pollinator-friendly practices, and disseminate these through social media. These videos could be linked to short surveys and questionnaires to evaluate impact of these videos, and help identify sections of the P4 that could be adjusted to more effectively communicate information. One way to expand reach is for these videos to address common misconceptions and questions.

3. Develop training modules for specific aspects of the P4 that can be used by and address the needs of different stakeholder communities. Areas of training that would be most beneficial are: (1) creating and managing pollinator habitat for different audiences and land types, (2) stressors for pollinators and their solutions, (3) managing pesticide and herbicide use in both urban and agricultural settings, or (4) keeping bees in different types of landscape. These modules can be very targeted (eg, improving the public’s ability to read and understand pesticide use and toxicity labels) or broad. These training modules could be required for certain groups (such as pesticide applicators, or individuals who are receiving support from programs to develop pollinator habitat on their lands). This could include training of extension educators who better reach localized Pennsylvania communities.

4. In the same way the P4 itself was created, utilize the P4 partnership to help coordinate and facilitate participation of scientists, policymakers, concerned citizens, and others in the development and implementation of future research, conservation, and planning efforts.

5. Continue to develop resources that individuals can use to better identify pollinator species and pollinator plants in Pennsylvania. These can include checklists and field guides of Pennsylvania pollinators and key pollinator plants and accessible online resources, including AI-enabled systems.

6. Organize community-scientists to help monitor and promote pollinator populations in Pennsylvania. With sufficient training, informational resources and organizational support, Pennsylvania citizens can become important contributors to a long-term plan to monitor pollinator populations in the state (see research recommendation #1). Similarly, urban gardening initiatives engaging the community can be a great way to educate and encourage connectivity of pollinator habitat.

7. Develop a group that supports individuals who manage non-Apis bee species, such as bumble bees or Osmia bees, and enhance training in these areas. The Pennsylvania State Beekeepers Association (PSBA) provides valuable information and support for individuals who manage honey bee colonies, and can advocate effectively for honey bee health in Pennsylvania. With a growing interest in managing non-Apis bee species, a similar group could be developed, or the PBSA could be expanded to include these other managed bees. Opportunities should be developed for training in Osmia or other non-Apis managed pollinators.

8. Promote the Pennsylvania State Wildlife Action Plan. The conservation status of a group of pollinators and other invertebrates were evaluated for this plan. An updated species assessment report is available online. There are urgent conservation and management issues that need to be addressed to ‘keep common species common’, conserve species of global and regional importance, maintain PA-rare species, and reduce knowledge gaps to better assess the conservation status of species. The State Wildlife Action Plan has recently integrated two tools - a Conservation Opportunity Area and Conservation Action Tracker Tool - to inform on wildlife of concern and how best to manage habitats for these wildlife in ones area. There is a need to better integrate pollinator information and habitat needs more into this tool.

9. Highlight and celebrate the diversity of pollinators in Pennsylvania, and our efforts to support them. These efforts can include photo contests of pollinators, monthly news articles featuring local community members (including growers) whose efforts support pollinators, pollinator-themed scavenger hunts for K-12 students, and so forth. The development of pollinator gardens in regions with high visibility (such as state and municipal buildings) can also help promote understanding of pollinators and pollinator conservation.

10. Develop a rating system to help growers effectively communicate their efforts to support pollinators to consumers. This rating system or alternative communication strategy can be developed for different crops, types of growers, markets, and consumers. This rating system should be developed by a consortium of researchers, extension specialists, growers, and retailers.

Below are suggestions for assessing the effectiveness of the P4 in terms of reaching a broad audience in Pennsylvania and encouraging more individuals and organizations to actively participate in supporting pollinator populations. Participation may take many forms, including obtaining improved information, working with existing groups that support and advocate for pollinators, and implementing changes in backyards, farms, businesses, communities, or regions. The P4 could be considered effective if we could demonstrate :

1. Increased number of participants in the PA State Beekeepers Association, and/or an equivalent managed non-Apis bee organization. The PSBA provides valuable information, resources and guidance for individuals managing honey bee colonies, which can support both beekeepers and their bees. Establishing an equivalent group for managed non-Apis bees would similarly support this growing beekeeper group in Pennsylvania.

2. Increased average honey bee colony overwintering survival. When the P4 was first written, the 2016-2017 winter loss rate in Pennsylvania was ~50%. The target for the US National Strategy to Promote the Health of Honey Bees and Other Pollinators was to reduce losses to 15% by 2025.

In 2017, the Center for Pollinator Research initiated a collaboration with Pennsylvania beekeepers to collect data on winter losses through an annual survey, which is reported on the BeeWinterwise Dashboard through the CPR website (https://beesuite.psu.edu/winte...).

In 2017-2018, beekeepers reported winter losses of 53.9%. From 2017-2024, the overall winter loss was 37%. In 2024-2025, the loss rate was 26%, while the national loss rate was 40%. In 2024-2025, while the national winter loss rate was reported at 62%, PA beekeepers reported losses of 36%. Thus, while neither the PA nor national losses have been reduced to 25%, PA losses are consistently lower than national losses and have improved since 2016.

3. Increased numbers of certified PA Pollinator Gardens through the PSU Master Gardeners Program. The certified PA Pollinator Garden program provides critical information for individuals wishing to create pollinator habitat in their backyards or businesses, and sets criteria to evaluate the effectiveness of these practices.

4. Increased acres of pollinator habitat in public and wild lands.

5. Increased numbers of people taking training modules developed to disseminate information from PA Pollinator Protection Plan.

6. Increased “pollinator literacy” of individuals viewing informational videos developed about the P4. Pollinator literacy can be evaluated via short questionnaires or surveys of individuals watching these videos on social media.

7. Increased numbers of people viewing and downloading the PA Pollinator Protection Plan.

8. Increased integration of pollinator agendas in agency work plans.

The development of the Pennsylvania Pollinator Protection Plan (P4) brought together individuals representing 28 state and national organizations and stakeholder groups, establishing a strong network that can be leveraged to address ongoing and arising issues in pollinator health in Pennsylvania. The P4 is a comprehensive, information-rich, and living document that provides recommendations for best practices to support pollinator populations – and the diverse communities and stakeholders that value and depend on them – throughout the state. The best practices outlined in the P4 were developed to ensure that the incredible diversity of Pennsylvania’s pollinator species and their ecosystem services are appreciated, promoted, and protected across the diverse landscapes of Pennsylvania. This recommendations section represents the input of a diverse community of individuals, and is intended to serve as a framework for using the P4 as a platform for supporting the pollinators and people of Pennsylvania.