Greetings, butterfly supporters,

I hope you are enjoying the butterfly offseason and keeping busy until the 2026 WBA field season begins! I’m organizing photos from this past season. People often ask which butterfly is my favorite, which is difficult to answer, but it is usually the one I’m seeing in the moment.

The WBA Board Election results are final, and the Board is set for the 2025-2026 term. President: Liz Kuehn, Vice President: Dan Dunphy, Secretary: Karen Holtrop, Treasurer: Regina Johnson, At Large: Alex Corsten, Carolyn Heberlein, David James, Paulette Murphy, Jim Reed, Melanie Weiss.

Thank you to all who participated and helped us meet the membership quorum for this year’s election.

Bring back the butterflies! An enthusiastic group of WBA members went to work on our Butterfly Garden Restoration in Seattle. Wood chips and Himalayan Blackberries were no match for this group. Many thanks to Dan Dunphy, Mike and Vicki Elledge, Pam Gunther, Carolyn Heberlein, Paulette Murphy, Kathy O’Leary, Melanie Weiss, Thomas Kelly (our MESA Steward), and Richard Youel for joining me for our 3rd butterfly garden restoration work party. We plan to meet again on Saturday, November 22, from 10:00 AM to 12:30 PM. Look for a WBA Noticeline soon with details about the Magnuson Park Butterfly Garden Restoration work party.

We appreciate our members. Your membership and donations allow WBA to educate and promote the understanding and enjoyment of butterflies through Monthly Programs and Field Trips.

Paulette Murphy, our Program Director, finds speakers from across the field of lepidoptery and connects them with our Zoom and YouTube audience. She has done an outstanding job, and this year’s offerings were no exception:

February – Dr. Gary Bernard, Red Blindness, Red Vision and Far-Red Vision of Butterflies, March – David Droppers, Final results of his butterfly inventory project on the Mountain Loop Highway, April – Julie O’Donald, Native Pollinators in our Gardens, September – David James, Imperiled Washington Butterflies: Status, Needs and Strategies, October – Robert Pyle, “A Pylean Potpourri in Silver, Copper, and Blue”.

Tune in for our Programs on the first Wednesday of each month, September through May.

If you missed or would like to see any program again, you could access information and YouTube links from our Blog Category Programs – Washington Butterfly Association. Be sure to subscribe and get all the latest uploads.

Field trips are a hands-on, real-life “butterflying” experience. Melanie Weiss, our Field Trip coordinator, organizes each season’s field trip leaders and their destinations. This year, she arranged with the trip leaders 12 successful trips and supported 4 of David James’ Species of Greatest Conservation Need (SGCN) trips. I can’t wait to see what they come up with next year!

To learn more about our field trips, check out the Blog Category Trip Report – Washington Butterfly Association.

Thank you for your continued support and engagement!

G’num2025Vol26No4