Please join us for the 73rd Annual Meeting of the Lepidopterists’ Society as we gather in Sierra Vista, Arizona and enjoy the wide-open spaces of the American West. The meeting will be held from Wednesday, July 30th to Sunday, August 3rd and is hosted by Kelly Richers, Chuck Harp and Todd Gilligan, with assistance from Sangmi Lee and her students. The area provides an outstanding array of scenery, western history, and opportunities for exploring a diverse flora and fauna. The location for two previous Lepidopterists’ Society meetings, Sierra Vista is a modern city of 50,000 people that is most well-known for Fort Huachuca, home of the Army’s famed Buffalo Soldiers. Sierra Vista is located on the southwestern side of Cochise County and is 15 miles southwest of the historic town of Tombstone, 20 miles northwest of Bisbee, and 16 miles from the border of Mexico.
The area around Sierra Vista is home to some of the most famous Lepidoptera collecting locations in the entire country. Field trips will include both collecting and observing, which will feature both daytime and night collecting trips to lower Carr Canyon and other local canyons depending on the weather. Also within close reach are Ramsey Canyon, Carr Canyon, Miller Canyon and Ash Canyon, as well as the desert east of the city. Within driving distance is the Coronado National Memorial, Guadalupe Canyon, and other locations near Portal. The Huachuca Mountains just west of town offer some of the most diverse habitat in Arizona, from lower riparian habitat to high elevation campsites and observation/collecting areas.
The meetings and lodging will be held at Sierra Suites, with many other lodging and camping options located nearby. Saturday’s banquet will be catered by the Orient Express Restaurant, with a Friday barbeque catered by Bam Bam Barbeque at Veteran’s Memorial Park.
The Executive Council meeting will be held Wednesday morning July 30th in the Vernadero Room at Sierra Suites and the welcome reception will be Wednesday evening at the hotel. The scientific program (talks and posters) will be scheduled for Thursday (July 31st) and Friday (August 1st), with Saturday morning available if needed. The banquet will be held Saturday night at Sierra Suites, again followed by an organized nighttime collecting trip after the meal. Dark skies come late in the summer here, collecting sites are always nearby and accessible, and we assume there will be unofficial collecting trips every night during the meeting.
A block of rooms will be reserved at the Sierra Suites for LepSoc members, with special rates for the meeting. The organizing committee consists of Kelly Richers, with assistance from Chuck Harp and Todd Gilligan.
Registration is coming soon! For more information, please email meeting@lepsoc.org. See you in Sierra Vista!