Omak, June 26- 28
For our sixteenth annual conference, we return this June to Okanogan country – the land of shrub-steppe, dry forests, and butterfly diversity. We gather for lectures on Friday and Saturday nights at the Okanogan Grange; 305 Tyee St.; Okanogan. Lodging can be found in nearby Omak, and camping is scattered throughout the area. Look for details on the following page. A registration form is included in this issue, and registering by May 29 gets you a $10 discount and allows you to buy optional meals. June is a busy season for visitors to Okanogan country, so book your accommodations early and join us for a fun and interesting weekend.
Okanogan County is one of the best areas in Washington for butterfly diversity. The county is well beyond the normal field trip range for WBA, and as a result we don’t visit the area as often as we would like. There are several iconic destinations within striking distance of Omak; names like Moses Meadows, the Sinlahekin Valley, Long Swamp, Thirty-mile Meadows and Salmon Meadows evoke longtime memories in the collective minds of Washington lepidopterists.
For the full-day field trip on Saturday we are planning to visit Moses Meadows, a large natural meadow surrounded by evergreen forests, about 20 miles east of Omak and entirely within the Colville Indian Reservation. We will be butterflying along unsurfaced roads where walking will be limited and optional, so this will be a pretty easy trip into some excellent habitat. Possibilities include the much sought-after Meadow Fritillary, Oreas Comma, Northern Checkerspot and a nice variety of other northern species.
On Sunday our half-day trip will be to the beautiful Sinlahekin Valley about 25 miles northwest of Omak. This is state Fish & Wildlife land, with numerous access points for fishing and camping; butterflies can be exceptional at times, sometimes forming large puddle parties right in the roadways. Like Moses Meadows, this trip will also be easy and relaxed with minimal walking. A State Discover Pass is essential for each car participating in this trip.
While the conference traditionally ends following the Sunday half-day trip, this year we will try something a little different. For those who are able to stay and are interested, we are planning another field trip for Monday. This will be a fairly long (120 mile) loop trip off to the west of the Sinlahekin; about a third of this distance will be on unsurfaced roads of mostly good quality. On this loop we will travel west from the tiny town of Loomis to Long Swamp, a location long known to harbor the rare Freija Fritillary as well as a good selection of other butterflies. Then we will continue south on forest roads through an old burn to Thirty-mile Meadows, another stronghold of the Freija Fritillary. Continuing south we will cross Lone Frank Pass and drop down to beautiful Salmon Meadows where the pavement resumes. Then we will continue southeast through Conconully and back to Hwy 97 at Okanogan. This trip passes through some higher elevation terrain where weather can be an issue, so we will need to stay flexible to other possibilities.