WBA’s 2016 conference participants literally drove further and climbed higher than in any previous WBA event: on reaching the lovely alpine zone habitats atop Mount Howard in the Wallowas of northeast Oregon, we reached an altitude of 8500 feet. Moreover, many of us had driven 300 miles or more to make it on this boldest of our naturalist association’s weekend adventures. Friday night we were cautioned Dave Nunnallee and David James that butterfly numbers were low this year, but I doubt anyone left the weekend disappointed. Conference highlights included a terrific catered meal prepared by Backyard Garden, and a very entertaining and informative talk by one of Oregon’s premier field lepidopterists, Dana Ross, whose recent field reports stirred several of our group members to spend extra time after the conference on Sunday field trips to explore the arid Imnaha River in search of Oregon Swallowtails and Pygmy Blues.

Although butterfly sightings were indeed fewer and less varied this trip than we might have hoped, the isolated alpine habitats offered truly breathtaking views of neighboring peaks as well as the surrounding fertile valleys. We had intimate close-ups of sensitive wildflowers, interesting bird species and less common butterfly species or subspecies. After having made a climb of 3700 feet in about four miles onto Scotchman Peak in Idaho this summer by foot, I was “all in” for taking the tram ride into this mountain area! Seven Greater Fritillary species were found, amongst abundant large Mountain Parnassians, a variety of Blues and a surprisingly strong showing of all four Western Vanessids. Even the American Lady was present. Kudos especially to Jasmine James for deftly netting some of our group’s outlier species

Surely some of our fondest memories will involve time we spent with our first two Idie Ulsh Young Naturalist Scholar- ship winners. Ingrid Brown, age 12, hails from Seattle, and was joined in the Wallowas by her father, Chris, where she had a chance to try her artistic hand at drawing the butterflies, beetles and other creatures they found. Mallory Keenan, 10, and her mother, Kelli, joined us from Vashon Island, finding the occupied nest of a Northern Goshawk family to lighten up our experience on a rather damp and dreary Sunday morning field trip. Both girls proved very adept with their nets and cameras! A photo of Mallory and her mother graced an issue of the weekly newspaper of the area, the Wallowa County Chieftan, shortly after our expedition.

WBA thanks all those with our group in Oregon, as well as those who helped out from farther afield, to make this grand adventure happen. We thank David James, David Nunnallee and Dana Ross, who studied the area thoroughly as our advance scouts; also Joyce Bergen, for coordinating this event as our ever trusty event planner; Al Wagar for skillful and unobtrusive audio-visual work and other event coordination; Maureen Traxler, for assembling a delightful display of butterfly related goods for the annual silent auction, which raised over $400; the Hurricane Creek Grange, for their outstanding hospitality; Brenda McCracken, for heading up our scholarship team and serving enthusiastically as liaison to our scholarship recipient families; and finally, Vic Ulsh and other members of Idie Ulsh’s family, whose financial support made our Young Naturalist Scholarships possible. Many others unnamed here pitched in as well. You are a great team to work with!

Here’s a link to a video Al made of the conference.

And one he made of our Keynote talk by Dana Ross

G’num2016Vol17No3