Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility Pielli’s bill to protect native species approved by House Environmental and Natural Resources Protection Committee

Pielli’s bill to protect native species approved by House Environmental and Natural Resources Protection Committee

Rep. Chris Pielli    March 18, 2025 | 11:58 AM

HARRISBURG, March 18 – State Rep. Chris Pielli, D-Chester, announced today that his legislation, H.B. 441, has been approved by the state House Environmental and Natural Resources Protection Committee.

Pennsylvania is currently home to 77 endangered insect species. Pollinators such as the bumblebee and the monarch butterfly are in decline across the country, threatening the health balance of ecosystems across the country.

The bill would amend the Wild Resource Conservation Act of 1982 to give Pennsylvania’s Department of Conservation and Natural Resources authority over terrestrial insects, which will:

  • Help prevent the need for federal Endangered Species Act protection of imperiled insect species by allowing the state to recover species early.
  • Give Pennsylvania a voice to speak with federal agencies acting to conserve protected insect species.
  • Provide funding opportunities to offset costs of insect species recovery.
  • Permit inter-agency coordination when insect conservation issues such as highway management and light pollution are discussed.
  • Allow DCNR to invest in critically important pollinator species that we need for food production and resilient natural areas.

“Since the 1990s, the population of monarch butterflies in North America has declined by 90%. They are now an endangered species. Without insects and pollinators like the monarch butterfly, flowers and crops cannot survive. To ensure human welfare, we must protect them,” Pielli said. “That is why I've reintroduced H.B. 441, a bill which will address the conservation of wild native terrestrial insects by adding language that protects them under Pennsylvania’s Wild Resource Conservation Act, thus upholding our constitutional right to the preservation of natural, scenic, historic and aesthetic values of the environment in Pennsylvania."

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