WALPA Annual Conference

2008 Conference

The 2008 WALPA conference will be held on September 30th and October 1, 2008 at  the Hawthorn Inn and Suites in Arlington, Washington. Check out the Hawthorn Inn at www.hawthorninn.net. Check back later for more details. Hope to see you there!

2008 Conference Flyer and Registration

2007 Conference

On October 18th and 19th WALPA members gathered at Campbell’s Resort in Lake Chelan to celebrate twenty years as an organization and to hear speakers on a variety of topics. Citizens, tribal staff, consultants, lake association members and government officials—more than 90 people altogether—attended the annual conference, this year called "Lakes – Bringing Science and Communities Together".

Jonathan Frodge from King County kicked off the plenary session suggesting directions WALPA could take as we head into our next 20 years. Ideas included leading an effort to reinstate a statewide lakes program and working on lawn fertilizer legislation to keep lakes clean. Senator Ken Jacobsen followed up on Jonathan’s suggestions with a presentation about developing meaningful and successful legislation.

At Thursday’s lunch, Bill Jarocki from the Boise State Environmental Finance Center spoke on "Saving Time and Finding Money to Achieve Results: A Watershed Approach." The talk focused on work his team has been doing to help people fund environmental enhancement and protection projects. Tools available include a searchable database of financial resources for watershed restoration in Washington and other states, a planning tool to help estimate project costs and a program that allows users to implement a long term financial strategy to meet strategic goals. All of these are available on-line and free to everyone at http://efc.boisestate.edu/efc/.

Other sessions at the Chelan conference covered topics from community and volunteer work to new legislation updating the state Shoreline Master Program to the ever-popular blue-green algae.

Members also gathered for cocktails and networking Thursday night and for a business meeting at Friday’s lunch. At the business meeting members selected new board members, met the new presidents, and asked general questions of the board and other members.

Ten vendors sponsored this year’s conference including Hach Environmental, Clean Lake LLC, AquaTechnex, TG-Eco-Logic, Aquatic Environments Inc., Northwest Aquatic Management, LLC, Electronic Data Solutions, Solar Bee and Cygnet Enterprises NW Inc. These generous sponsors helped make this year’s 20th anniversary conference a great success – thank you!

Next year’s conference is still coming together, but will be on the west side of the state in the fall Stay tuned and make space on your fall calendar now!

2007 Conference Flyer

2007 Conference list of attendees

2007 Conference photo contest winners

2007 Conference sponsors included (click below for sponsor's website):
        Hach Environmental
        Clean Lakes, Inc.
        Aquatechnex
        Washington Department of Ecology

2006 Conference

The Washington State Lake Protection Association (WALPA) and the Oregon Lakes Association (OLA) held a regional conference with support of the North American Lake Management Society and the Portland State University Center for Lakes and Reservoirs. The Pacific Northwest Regional Conference was held at Portland State University in Portland, Oregon on September 13th and 14th, 2006. This regional conference offered a unique opportunity to learn the concerns and challenges experienced by other Pacific Northwest states while forging connections among lake and resource managers, researchers, and citizens.

2006 conference final program

2006 conference list of attendees

2006 conference photo contest winners

2005 Conference

WALPA's 18th annual conference was held at the Mirabeau Park Hotel in Spokane, Washington, from March 30 - April 1, 2005.  The conference theme was Lake Stewardship in the Pacific Northwest.

2005 conference wrap-up (as part of the June 2005 issue of Waterline)

2005 conference list of attendees

2005 conference photo contest winners

Letter to members who missed the 2005 conference

2004 Conference

WALPA's 17th annual conference was held at the Lakeway Inn in Bellingham, Washington, from March 31-April 2, 2004.  The conference theme was Lakes Solutions for the 21st Century.

2004 conference final program

2004 conference list of attendees

2004 conference photo contest winners

2003 Conference

WALPA’s 16^th annual conference was held at Campbell's Resort in Chelan Washington from April 2–4, 2003.  The conference theme was Lakeside Living and the conference included two full days (Thursday and Friday) of concurrent sessions that followed two tracks of interest.

2003 Preliminary program and registration form

2002 Conference

2001 Conference

WALPA’s 14^th annual conference was held in Spokane, Washington from April 4 through 7, 2001.  The conference theme was Lakes, Reservoirs, and Watersheds with a Special Focus on Federal Initiatives.

2001 annual conference program

2001 annual conference list of attending organizations

 

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