The Western Pennsylvania Conservancy will receive $32,238 from a Department of Conservation and Natural Resources Wild Resource Conservation Program grant.

DCNR announced $290,734 in grant funding Monday for eight projects aimed at protecting Pennsylvania’s native biodiversity, including the $32,238 for the Pittsburgh-based conservancy’s Invertebrate Databasing Project to Support Species Assessment.

“These projects play an important role in ongoing conservation work to protect vulnerable wildlife species that are affected by climate change, human impacts and other threats,” DCNR Secretary Cindy Adams Dunn said. “As the state agency responsible for stewardship of our natural resources, DCNR supports projects of these types to protect and preserve our native wildlife resources for future generations.”

Western Pennsylvania Conservancy’s project will include developing species lists, compiling datasets and digitizing specimen data for invertebrates. The information will be used in the 2025 PA Wildlife Action Plan.

Launched in 1982, Wild Resource Conservation Program encourages and supports research and protection efforts to conserve Pennsylvania’s diverse native wildlife resources, including bird and mammal species, amphibians and reptiles, insects and wild plants.