Western Forest Insect Work Conference: Advancing collaboration, scholarship, and forest health management throughout western North America.
WFIWC 2026
April 13-16
IN PERSON - Santa Rosa, California USA
Founder’s Award
The WFIWC Founder’s Award recognizes those who have significantly advanced the field of forest entomology.
The 2024 Founder's Award Recipient, Dr. Barbara Bentz, was honored for her contributions to forest entomology in western North America at the 2025 Founders Award Banquet. Dr. Bentz shared stories and insights from her long, distinguished career in forest entomology.
The 2025 Founder’s Award Recipient is Dr. Ann Lynch, for her myriad accomplishments and contributions to the field. She will be honored at the 2026 Founders Award Banquet in Santa Rosa.
Memorial Scholarship Award
Autumn Maust, PhD - Tobin Lab, University of Washington
Autumn graduated from the University of Washington in 2025 with her PhD in Environmental and Forest Sciences. Her research explores the effects of mixed severity wildfires on pollinating bees, beetles, and flies in eastern Washington. Using field based and molecular methods, she quantifies shifts in pollinator community composition, mason bee fitness, and plant-pollinator networks over spatial and temporal scales.
