Ellensburg/Teanaway

Well the 2017 annual conference for the WA Butterfly Association is behind us. From all accounts I have received it was a success. The Swauk-Teanaway Grange was a lovely location and the setting was bucolic. The weather treated us well-not too hot, not too cold. The final species list was quite impressive, a full 50 species of butterflies plus at least 7 species of bumble bees. We had not one, not two but three scholarship winners present, plus last year’s recipient returned. I like this trend!

In spite of all of our pre-conference concerns relative to road closures and USFS permit challenges, the field trip leaders did a great job of taking us to lots of beautiful spots full of flowers, moisture and butterflies! While there was a bit of confusion around hotels and lodging, in the end it all seemed to work out.

We had great attendance from around the state-and beyond! We were honored by both Jon Pelham and Robert Pyle attending. We also began our expanded organizational focus on butterfly conservation with an excellent and compelling keynote presentation on Butterfly Conservation in Washington, by Dr. David James. The silent auction was a lot of fun and the funds raised will help us moving forward.

This year we had a relatively new board with limited experience organizing a statewide conference. We very much appreciate the patience and understanding shown as we slowly pulled everything together-luckily it did seem to come together in the end. Yay!

A lot of individuals deserve credit for making this year’s conference a success: David James and Dave Nunnallee as field trip leaders, John Baumann for his leadership as board chair, Melanie Weiss and Maureen Traxler for their help and advice with project management and silent auction coordination; Richard Youel for signs and signage placement, and everyone who pitched in and helped setting up and taking down all the tables, chairs, plus cleanup after Saturday’s dinner.

Now, it’s time to start planning for next year!

G’num2017Vol18No3