Protect Pollinators drop

We love pollinators—these tiny eco-warriors are often seen as pests and their habitats are under threat. That's why we chose to highlight the tiniest members of our community for our summer drop.

The High Line’s naturalistic garden zones—woodlands, wetlands, thickets, and grasslands—are designed to echo the native landscapes that once lined the Hudson River shores, making our gardens attractive habitats to 400 species of resident and visiting birds and 33 species of bees, as well as butterflies, migrating bats, and other beneficial insects such as ladybugs. Native pollinators under threat—such as the Monarch butterfly—find critical support for their lifecycle from their partner plants like the native butterfly milkweed in our gardens.

Pollinators fertilize plants, enabling them to generate flowers, seeds, and fruit, and to reproduce and flourish. This incredible teamwork happens even in the most urban of environments, with planted oases like the High Line providing both essential food and shelter to native pollinators right here in New York City!

Friends of the High Line is celebrating the diverse array of pollinators that call our park and New York City home. The park currently provides a home to more than 30 species of bees, and dozens of species of visiting, overwintering, and local birds, as well as robust populations of beetles, moths, beneficial wasps, hummingbirds, flower flies, and other pollinating wildlife.

Want to learn more about the pollinators on the High Line? Visit our blog and take a deep dive in the High Line gardens through the eyes—and antennas, long tongues, and proboscises—of the pollinators who populate them.