And How You Can Help Protect Them
If you joined us at the Fall 2025 Confluence, you already know this truth: clean water doesn’t happen in isolation. It’s the result of a thriving ecosystem where every creature—from the smallest insect to the largest mammal—plays a vital role. The butterflies dancing above your local stream, the bees buzzing through riverside wildflowers, and yes, even those bugs you might swat away, are all essential partners in maintaining healthy watersheds.
The Web of Water Health
Here’s what we emphasized at the Confluence: when you’re monitoring your stream for water quality, you’re only seeing part of the story if you’re just testing pH levels and checking for pollutants. A truly healthy watershed needs a healthy ecosystem supporting it. Those insects you see (or don’t see) are telling you something important about your water.
Pennsylvania is home to 18 butterfly species currently listed as “imperiled,” “critically imperiled,” or “vulnerable.” When these pollinators disappear, the native plants that filter runoff and stabilize stream banks struggle to reproduce. Without those plants, erosion increases, water temperature rises, and the entire aquatic food web begins to collapse. It’s all connected.
Your Toolkit for Discovery
At the Confluence, we introduced folks to iNaturalist—a free app that turns your smartphone into a powerful identification tool. Next time you’re out checking your stream, snap a photo of that unusual butterfly or interesting beetle. You might be documenting a species that scientists are tracking, contributing valuable data while learning what indicators of ecosystem health look like in your own backyard.
Time to Take Action
This interconnected reality is why we’re excited to support PennEnvironment’s new Insect Protection Coalition. They’re pushing for commonsense protections for Pennsylvania’s most vulnerable bees, butterflies, and other critical insects—the same creatures that help maintain the healthy ecosystems our watersheds depend on.
Hanna Felber, PennEnvironment’s new Clean Water and Conservation Associate, puts it perfectly: “These insects play a crucial role in our ecosystem, and protecting them is essential for our environment as a whole.”
The coalition letter calls for simple, practical protections that will help these species thrive. It’s not about dramatic changes—it’s about recognizing that protecting Pennsylvania’s smallest residents directly protects our water resources.
How You Can Help
- Sign the Coalition Letter: Add your voice to the growing chorus calling for insect protections. It takes less than a minute.
- Document What You See: Download iNaturalist and start recording the insects, birds, and plants around your local waterways. Your observations matter.
- Think Ecosystem: When you’re doing stream monitoring or watershed work, remember you’re not just protecting water—you’re protecting an entire living system.
- Share the Connection: Help others understand that clean water and healthy insect populations aren’t separate issues. They’re two sides of the same coin.
The Bottom Line
Every time we lose another pollinator species, our watersheds become a little less resilient. Every time we protect these tiny workers, we’re investing in cleaner streams, healthier rivers, and better drinking water for all Pennsylvanians.
As John Detisch noted after the Confluence, monitoring your stream means monitoring the whole ecosystem. The health of one predicts the health of the other.
So next time you see a butterfly visiting the flowers along your favorite creek, remember: you’re looking at a tiny guardian of water quality. Let’s make sure they’re still there for generations to come.
Ready to help? Sign PennEnvironment’s Coalition Letter today and join the movement to protect the little things that make big differences in our watersheds.
