Melanie Weiss, lead volunteer, Naches Loop

The Cascade Butterfly Project, a citizen science project monitoring specific butterflies and plants in our high mountain meadows, has now ended its 8th season. We monitor 1,000 meter transects on trails at both Mt. Rainier and North Cascades National Parks, and a few additional locations. Many of our WBA members, seven this year, volunteered on the Naches Loop transect at Chinook Pass in Mount Rainier National Park. In addition, some of our members volunteer on the other transects being monitored. After eight years enough data has been collected that analysis has begun. Our team of volunteers also has kept an eye out for the tagged, or color-marked as they were this year, Coronis Fritillaries for the migration study of David James. We begin our inventories each season as soon as the trails melt out. This year at Naches, we were there from July 20 through Aug. 31. We have a lot of fun, and the high mountain meadows, butterflies and views are stunning!

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