Bring Back the Pollinators | Xerces Society

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Current locations pledged to protect pollinators. Click to view interactive map and sign the Pollinator Protection Pledge.

Follow These Four Simple Steps

Although pollinator conservation is a big task, it all begins with each of us adopting four simple steps: growing pollinator-friendly flowers, providing nest sites, avoiding pesticides, and spreading the word. With these core values, pollinator conservation can be adapted to any location, whether you tend an urban community garden or a suburban yard, work in a city park or on a farm. Make your commitment to these four principles official by signing our Pollinator Protection Pledge!

Grow Pollinator-Friendly Flowers

Flowers provide the nectar and pollen resources that pollinators feed on. Growing the right flowers, shrubs, and trees with overlapping bloom times will support pollinators, spring through fall.

Provide Nest Sites

It is important to support all pollinator life stages, including eggs and larvae! For bees, you can leave patches of bare ground and brush piles or install nesting blocks, and for butterflies and moths, plant caterpillar host plants.

Avoid Pesticides

Pesticides, especially insecticides, are harmful to pollinators. Herbicides reduce food sources by removing flowers from the landscape. Fungicides can also have synergistic effects on bees. The good news is that there are alternatives!

Spread the Word

Make your commitment both official and visible by signing the Pollinator Protection Pledge! You can also share information about pollinators on social media, or spread the word with a pollinator habitat sign.

Pollinator Conservation Program

We’re proud to say that the Xerces Society has the world’s largest team of conservationists dedicated to protecting pollinators. Learn more about our work.

Who Are the Pollinators?

Learn about the main groups of insect pollinators—bees, butterflies, flies, wasps, and beetles—including their life cycles, habitat needs, and conservation concerns.

Endangered Pollinators

The Xerces Society is working to protect the most endangered pollinators, and have successfully obtained protections for several species. Learn more about our work and how to help.

What's at Stake?

Bees and other pollinators touch our lives every day in ways we may not realize. They are responsible for as much as one third of the food and drinks that we consume, for starters.