April 25, 2026

By David James

The Cowiche Canyon Conservancy in Yakima has held an Annual Earth Day celebration of nature in the canyon for many years. For at least 15 of those years, I have had the pleasure of hosting a butterfly station in the canyon where I would have books and pictures of butterflies as well as some live butterflies and caterpillars. This year, I was joined by Melanie Weiss and our President Liz Kuehn and they brought along a table and a lot of WBA information and handouts as well as butterfly-themed games for children.

I brought along some of the cases of WA butterflies from the 1970s that were recently gifted to WBA as well as a few live spring butterflies – elfins, Beckers, Cabbage Whites etc. We also showed some Milbert’s Tortoiseshell caterpillars collected from a very nearby nettle patch plus one lonely woolly bear caterpillar.

Well, Mr Woolly Bear did not remain lonely for long as he spent most of the morning in the hands of children, besotted by this miniature furry creature! They loved him and one little girl in particular did not want to leave him (much to the consternation of her mother…). So, after 15 years, I have discovered the magic ingredient in getting and holding the attention of children at this Earth Day event: holding a woolly bear! Mr Woolly Bear enjoyed his morning and has now pupated and should eclose as a Nevada Tiger Moth before too long.

Melanie, Liz and I also enjoyed our sunny spring morning in the canyon and we got many people excited or maybe just interested in butterflies and WBA. Asher’s Blues were flying along with Beckers Whites and Painted Ladies and it was a great way to start off our WBA field trip season!

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