2005 WBA Conference. Last July WBA had its best annual conference yet. The Methow River Valley was as beautiful as ever, butterflies greeted us Friday evening and, even though the weather wasn’t exactly ideal on Saturday, we saw a total of 42 species of butterflies during the weekend. Crispin Guppy, our featured speaker on Saturday evening, gave a fascinating talk about the similarities and differences between the butterflies of British Columbia and Washington. Mr. Guppy also gave us a special favor by joining our Saturday field trip. Thanks to Joyce Bergen for organizing such a wonderful weekend, to Idie Ulsh for arranging for Mr. Guppy’s appearance, and to all the many other volunteers who pitched in.

Election of Officers. The officers who will serve WBA for the next 12 months were officially elected during the conference. David Williams and I are going to serve another year as Vice President and President, respectively. Donna Schaeffer was elected Secretary, and Mardell Moore is WBA’s Treasurer.

2006 WBA Conference. Next year’s conference will be headquartered in Metaline Falls July 21-23, 2006. The Metaline Falls area has some excellent butterfly habitats. We hope to find some species that are difficult to find elsewhere in Washington, such as Boloria selene (silver-bordered fritillary) and Colias alexandra (Queen Alexandra’s sulphur). Northeastern Washington is an especially interesting area because it shares some qualities of the Rocky Mountains, and features moist boreal forests and boggy meadows.

Many of you remember that our June 2003 conference was memorable for the small number of butterfly species we saw, although you have to admire the Garita skipperling that was flying in the rain. We’ve realized our mistake (summer doesn’t start until July in northeastern Washington) and decided to give the area another try. This time we’re confident we’ll see butterflies in addition to finding fossils.

G’num2005Vol6No4