From Data to Action: What Washington Can Learn from Oregon’s New Pollinator Strategy
Oregon has taken an important step toward more strategic, science-based pollinator conservation.
Developed by the Xerces Society, the new Oregon Pollinator Conservation Strategy brings together species data, habitat modeling and threat assessments to answer three essential questions:
Where can conservation help the greatest number of at-risk pollinator species?
Which threats are affecting pollinators—and where?
How can land be managed to reduce those threats and provide the greatest benefit?
The strategy identifies 22 priority pollinator species and highlights areas where conservation investments could make the greatest difference. Because scientists still lack complete distribution data for many insects, the strategy combines documented observations with habitat-suitability models. An accompanying interactive mapping dashboard makes that information more accessible to land managers, conservation organizations and communities.
As the Xerces Society explains, the goal is not only to prevent the disappearance of the rarest species. It is also to “keep common species common” by protecting the habitats and ecological relationships that support entire pollinator communities.
That is an approach Washington should build upon.
Why Oregon’s approach matters
Pollinator conservation is often reduced to a simple message: plant more flowers. That is helpful, but it is not a complete strategy.
Different pollinators have different needs. Some depend on particular native plants, soil conditions, nesting materials or habitats. A landscape can contain abundant flowers and still provide little value if it lacks suitable nesting areas, host plants for caterpillars, spring or fall forage, or protection from pesticides.
Oregon’s strategy recognizes that effective conservation must be both local and species-informed. It considers habitat loss and fragmentation, pesticide exposure, invasive species and climate change while helping decision-makers identify where particular actions are most urgently needed.
It also recognizes that conservation cannot occur only in protected natural areas. Farms, roadsides, city parks, schoolyards, community spaces and residential gardens can all contribute to a connected network of habitat.
Native plants are especially important within that network. Local pollinators and native plants are connected through relationships that developed over thousands of years. Native plants provide pollen, nectar, leaves, stems and other resources that support not only adult pollinators, but also their nests, larvae and overwintering stages. Protecting pollinators therefore also means protecting the native biodiversity upon which they depend.
Washington is not starting from scratch
Washington has already accomplished several important things for pollinator conservation.
In 2019, the Legislature created the Washington State Department of Agriculture’s Pollinator Health Program and established the Pollinator Health Task Force. The legislation also directed state land-management agencies to consider pollinators and pollinator habitat in their decisions.
The Task Force brought together state agencies, researchers, agricultural representatives, conservation organizations, beekeepers, Tribal representatives and community members. Its 2020 report to the Legislature presented 42 recommendations organized around habitat, pesticides, education, managed pollinators and research.
Those recommendations included:
Documenting Washington’s native bee species and mapping their distributions
Creating grants for community and landowner habitat projects
Expanding pollinator education in schools and communities
Increasing the use of native plants on public lands and roadsides
Improving pollinator-friendly integrated pest management
Protecting native pollinators when managing state lands
Supporting research on pesticide risks to native bees
Washington has also created the Washington Bee Atlas, an ambitious community-science program that trains volunteers to collect, document and map native bees throughout the state. The resulting specimens are professionally identified, creating information that researchers and land managers can use.
That investment is already producing results. In March 2026, WSDA announced that Bee Atlas work had documented 17 bee species not previously recorded in Washington and rediscovered 12 species that had not been recorded in the state for decades—and, in some cases, for more than a century.
The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife has also developed management recommendations for the western bumble bee, one of our region’s best-known pollinators of conservation concern. And beginning in 2026, Washington law placed targeted restrictions on the use of neonicotinoid insecticides on outdoor ornamental plants, trees and turf, with specified exceptions.
These are significant accomplishments. Washington already has expertise, community participation and a strong set of policy recommendations. What it does not yet appear to have is a single, spatially explicit, all-pollinator conservation framework comparable to Oregon’s new strategy.
What Washington could do next
Oregon’s model offers Washington an opportunity to connect its existing work and turn growing amounts of data into coordinated action.
1. Create a comprehensive Washington Pollinator Conservation Strategy
Washington should develop a statewide strategy covering native bees, butterflies, moths, flies, beetles and other pollinating animals—not only managed honey bees or a small number of listed species.
The strategy should identify priority species, habitats, ecological regions and data gaps while recommending specific actions for agencies, cities, counties, farms, schools, businesses and private landowners.
2. Turn Bee Atlas data into public conservation maps
The Washington Bee Atlas is creating an extraordinary scientific resource. Its findings should be translated into an accessible decision-support tool showing:
Documented species distributions
Priority habitats and biodiversity areas
Regions where very little sampling has occurred
Important native plant communities
Potential habitat corridors
Areas facing development, pesticide or climate pressures
These maps could help direct public funding, restoration projects and volunteer monitoring toward the places where they would have the greatest impact.
3. Develop regional native-plant and habitat standards
A pollinator planting in Vancouver should not necessarily look like one in Spokane, Yakima or the Olympic Peninsula.
Washington should develop regionally appropriate guidance that supports native plant diversity and continuous bloom from early spring through fall. Standards should also address bare or lightly vegetated ground, standing stems, leaf litter, woody material, host plants and other nesting and overwintering resources.
Habitat quality should be measured by more than the number of flowers planted.
4. Map threats as well as habitat
Washington should identify where pollinators face overlapping pressures from habitat fragmentation, pesticide exposure, invasive species, drought, wildfire, extreme heat and development.
This would allow conservation projects to address the cause of local declines rather than applying the same intervention everywhere.
5. Connect the strategy to funding and land-management decisions
A strategy only matters if it changes what happens on the ground.
Pollinator priorities should be incorporated into state land-management plans, transportation projects, parks, school grounds, shoreline restoration, agricultural programs and local comprehensive planning. Washington should also establish stable funding for community-scale habitat projects, plant materials, technical assistance and long-term maintenance.
6. Invest in long-term monitoring
Finding pollinators is not the same as knowing whether their populations are stable, increasing or declining. Washington needs recurring monitoring, strong museum and specimen collections, professional taxonomic support and continued investment in community scientists.
Projects should track not only acres planted, but also plant survival, nesting resources, pesticide practices and changes in pollinator diversity over time.
7. Make communities central to implementation
Some of Washington’s most important pollinator habitat will be created in the places where people live, learn and gather.
Local organizations can connect statewide science with neighborhood action through bilingual education, native plant access, school programs, habitat demonstrations and community monitoring. These efforts should intentionally include communities that have historically had less access to environmental programs, green space and conservation funding.
What this could look like in Southwest Washington
Here in Clark County, the Vancouver Bee Project and our partners can help demonstrate how a statewide strategy becomes meaningful at the local level.
We can continue contributing observations and specimens to the Washington Bee Atlas while expanding our understanding of which native bees are present in our region. We can use that information to improve habitat in parks, schools, community spaces and residential neighborhoods.
Our Native Plant & Seed Library can help residents obtain locally appropriate plants—not simply ornamental flowers marketed as “pollinator friendly.” Our educational programs can explain the connections among native plants, native bees and the broader biodiversity of Southwest Washington.
We can also work with the City of Vancouver, schools, conservation districts and community organizations to create connected habitat rather than isolated gardens. A schoolyard, park, roadside planting and backyard may each be small, but together they can form a network that provides food, nesting sites and safer movement across the urban landscape.
Just as importantly, we can document what works and share the results. Community education, habitat restoration and community science are most powerful when they reinforce one another.
Washington has the foundation—now we need the roadmap
Oregon’s new strategy shows how data can be transformed into practical priorities. It does not replace local knowledge or community action. It gives those efforts clearer direction.
Washington has already created a Pollinator Health Task Force, developed an extensive set of recommendations, invested in the Washington Bee Atlas, improved protections from certain pesticide uses and produced management guidance for threatened pollinators.
The next step is to connect these accomplishments through a comprehensive, measurable and publicly accessible statewide conservation strategy.
We do not need to wait until every pollinator has been identified or every data gap has been filled. We can protect known areas of importance, improve habitat throughout our communities and continue learning as we act.
Oregon has offered a valuable model. Washington now has an opportunity to build on it—and perhaps create an even stronger one.