Forty-Seventh Annual Meeting

Abstract

116ASSOCIATION OF PACIFIC COAST GEOGRAPHERS FORTY-SEVENTH ANNUAL MEETING Cheney, Washington September 12-15, 1984 More than one hundred geographers attended the 47th annual meeting of the APCG at Eastern Washington University in Cheney, September 12-15. Official registration was ninety-nine (including nine spouses and thirteen students), but guests, student helpers, and Saturday attenders slipping in through the cracks lead me to suggest a total somewhere between 110 and 115 (including fifteen spouses and twenty to twenty-five students). Official registrants included geographers from Korea, Japan, Hawaii, Alaska, British Columbia, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington. Eastern Washington University hosted the meetings to commemorate die fifteenth anniversary of the Association's "conception" by Otis Freeman. Jeremy Anderson served as conference coordinator and program chair, and Mike Folsom was in charge of local arrangements and field excursions. The meeting got off to an excellent start with a keynote address, "The Changing Economic Geography of Washington State," by Bill Beyers, professor of geography at the University of Washington. At the annual banquet the following evening, Earl Kersten gave his presidential address, "Nevada Then and Now: Forging an Economy," which ably complemented Dr. Beyer's talk. A second feature of the banquet was a speech by Risa Palm, AAG president, who spoke briefly on "New Directions for the AAG." Association honors were conferred on Sam Dicken, Jim Parsons, and Joe Spencer (posthumously) . Janet Morlan, Humboldt State University, was given the Stella Louie award for best student paper in the area of physical geography for her study of bald eagle habitat use; Lance Howard of the University of California at Riverside was given an honorable mention award for his study of plant colonization of an abandoned highway. Special banquet guests included Willis and Florence Merriam and Francis and Betty Schadegg. Other highlights of the meetings were the all-day field excursion through Channeled Scablands and across the Northern Columbia Plateau to Grand Coulee Dam, the Grand Coulee, and the Columbia Basin Project (led by Mike Folsom, Dale Stradling, and Bob Quinn); a half-day tour of railroads and the Spokane County landscape led by Sam Scripter; and two early-morning running tours led by Jeremy Anderson—one on Thursday through a portion of the Cheney Palouse "island" and one on Saturday through local scabland and railroad landscapes. The field excursion guide, Landscapes of the Northern Columbia, edited by Mike Folsom, deserves special mention. Included are chapters on geomorphology (Stradling), climate (Quinn), soils and vegetation (Folsom), native settlement (John Ross), railroad development (Charles Mutschler), and the Columbia Basin Project (George Macinko); also featured are a number of excellent maps by Eastern Washington University cartographer David Anderson. YEARBOOK · VOLUME 47 · 1985117 The program included eighteen paper and special sessions, including symposia on geographic information systems (organizer, Nancy Hultquist); Otis Freeman (organizer, Jeremy Anderson); landscapes of the Northern Columbia Plateau (organizer, Mike Folsom); legal issues of resource use (organizer, Paul Matthews); and rural population trends in the western United States (organizer, Harley Johansen). Regular sessions were organized on the following themes: agricultural geography, economic geography, climatology and soils, biogeography, cultural landscapes, eneTgy and water resource, and geomorphology. Aside from the lateness of Saturday's brunch, there were few glitches. One advantage of holding the meeting on Eastern's campus prior to the start of fall quarter was the use of conveniently located Louise Anderson Hall to house those attending. The dormitory is right across the street from Isle Hall, where the geography department is housed and all paper sessions were held. Nearby are the Pence Union Building, where the annual banquet was held, and Tawanka Commons, where breakfast and lunch were available at very reasonable prices. Cheney's downtown was about twelve blocks away. Anderson, Folsom, and Stradling hosted happy hours at their homes prior to the banquet, and this, too, was a benefit of the small-town setting for the meetings. Key persons other than the organizers listed above included Jennifer Dahl, geography department secretary; student assistants Tom Allen, Liane Waldron, and Jon Albright; and Margie Wallace from EWU's conference center. We had fun hosting the meetings and look forward to doing it once more when our turn comes again in 20341...