The Pennsylvania Senate should support the recently-passed H.B. 441, which would amend our state’s Wild Resource Conservation Act of 1982 to give Pennsylvania’s Department of Conservation and Natural Resources authority over terrestrial insects, allowing the agency to conserve insects like monarch butterflies, bumble bees and fireflies — before they reach the point where they need protection under the federal Endangered Species Act.

Pennsylvania is one of just 12 states whose laws don’t provide for the authority to conserve invertebrate animals.

Pollinators and other invertebrates are critical to the health of agriculture and wild ecosystems, so changing these laws is a win for everyone.

This bill is now going to the state Senate for review.

Our senators should support H.B. 441.

Stan Kotala

Altoona