The WBA annual conference was held July 15-17 in Newport, WA. Once again, our conference was a resounding success, with great field trips, presentations, food, and camaraderie. And, much as we’d hoped, quite a few folks from eastern Washington participated. Saturday dawned overcast and threatening, with a flash of lightning and thunder clap as we gathered in the parking lot. It seemed cloudy in all directions, but we went to North Baldy anyhow, with the weather becoming marvelous and the trip providing many interesting species. Sunday’s trip to Hog Lake again provided great weather and some additional species. With approximately 50 people participating, we saw over 50 species during the two days, including two likely new records for Spokane County: Ruddy Copper (Lycaena rubida) and Great Basin Wood Nymph (Cercyonis sthenele).
On Friday evening, John Baumann reviewed and showed photos of the butterfly species of the area and those we might see on field trips. Jon Shepard, Lepidopterist from Nelson, BC was keynote speaker on Saturday evening and spoke on “Inland Empire – Lepidoptera and Lepidopterists” with a historic view of butterfly research and distributions in the northeastern Washington, northwestern Idaho and Canadian areas. Jon is co-author of the acclaimed Butterflies of British Columbia, and he is currently contracted with the Colville National Forest to survey Lepidoptera of the area.
Kudos – As usual the conference’s success resulted from the Herculean efforts of a few people. John Baumann, Brenda McCracken, Carol Mack, and John Stuart not only scouted field trip routes several times, but Carol Mack and John Stuart even did some road work to make the route to North Baldy reasonably (repeat “reasonably”) passable for vehicles. Months ahead, Joyce Bergen had once again scouted out possible venues, lodging, and caterers and, thanks to her homework, we chose Newport.
A Note from John Baumann
Thanks to the many WBA members who joined us for Wings Over Newport! To those who crossed the state to find us, thank you for sharing your expertise, enthusiasm and experience with butterfly watching! To those who joined us from Spokane and Pend Oreille Counties for your first WBA trip, thanks for bringing your questions and your own local observations: we are getting to know our own butterfly biodiversity better all the time. Special thanks to the conference organizers and planners, and to Carol Mack and John Stuart for their diligent field preparations. I was really excited to see that, even during a summer when the weather has been very challenging, we could have such a successful conference!
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