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Beavers reintroduced to southwest Oregon to restore wetlands
March 2025
In February, over a dozen beaver enthusiasts donned snowshoes and filed to a headwaters creek in southwest Oregon to watch as five beavers were introduced to their new home. One by one, the furry rodents clambered out of cloth bags and slid down the snowy bank into the frigid water.
The release marks a milestone for the Vesper Meadow Education Program, which has been rehabilitating wet meadow habitat on private land nearby.
Experts and volunteers have spent the past six years setting the table for beavers, said Jeanine Moy, Vesper Meadow’s program director. “We’ve been partnering with state federal agencies as well as local nonprofits, school groups, artists, independent biologists to get the ecosystem to the point where beavers could come back.”
Vesper Meadow and Beaver-based restoration
February 2024
Southern Oregon Responds, PBS
The Vesper Meadow Restoration Preserve is recovering from over a century of heavy forest and meadow use and now serves as a biocultural restoration demonstration site for the Vesper Meadow Education Program. By utilizing Low-tech Process Based Restoration Strategies that mimic the effect of beavers living in the creek (as they once did) we are jump-starting natural processes to restore the waterway and floodplain.
Counting Birds for Science…
February 2023
by Morgan Rothborne, Rogue Valley Tribune
“Birds can be an indicator of how a habitat is doing. They’re sensitive to water quality and other things like that, things humans rely on too. In my work I’m always encouraging people to participate in these sorts of things — it really is a great way to serve the greater good, to take part in science while gaining the therapeutic benefits of connecting to nature. There’s a whole wide world out there,” Moy said.
Bringing Back the Beaver
November 2022
by Juliet Grable, Jefferson Public Radio
For four years, Jeanine Moy has led programming to restore, monitor and explore Vesper Meadow, near Ashland. One of her prime objectives has been to restore Latgawa Creek and set the table for the beaver’s return.
If you want to emulate a beaver, you have to make friends with one of their favorite foods: willow shoots.
“I call them magic sticks—just plant them in the mud and they start to grow,” said Jeanine Moy, education program director for Vesper Meadow, a restoration demonstration site on the Howard Prairie Plateau, about 30 minutes east of Ashland. It was mid-October, and Moy had recruited volunteers for a work party called Beaver Days…
How Indigenous communities are reclaiming lost knowledge of “first foods” in southern Oregon
November 2022
Posted on The Oregonian Blog: Here is Oregon
The Indigenous Gardens Network comprises several land-based programs driven by an Indigenous-led steering committee, where community organizations act as conduits for the resources, land, and tools necessary to realize their vision. A unique partnership between citizens of the sovereign nations of the Confederated Tribes of Siletz and the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, Southern Oregon University and other community-focused non-profits, the IGN serves as a means for Native people to cultivate the land and grow and harvest “first foods,” or natural materials traditionally relied upon for subsistence, medicine, and ceremony before the arrival of white settlers.
Tribal representatives and conservation groups talk conscious foraging on Indigenous lands
APRIL 7TH 2022
As spring mushroom hunting season has arrived, hear Indigenous perspectives and take a look at respectful harvest. A Southern Oregon news story with our Board member Kathy Kentta-Robinson and Program Director Jeanine Moy.
Indigenous Gardens Network featured in February Stories of Southern Oregon
Hear updates in the Jefferson Exchange interview with our partner, Southern Oregon University’s Dr. Brook Colley as she discusses updates from Indigenous Gardens Network.
2022
Re-Beavering a Monument, featured in Oregon Humanities
Scientists, activists, and government officials are working to bring beavers back to the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument. Read about how our partners with The Beaver Coalition are working across the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument and at Vesper Meadow for beaver-based creek restoration.
January 2022
An Outdoor Art Adventure
Vesper Meadow is taking part of the Schneider Museum of Art outdoor art exhibition titled “Art Beyond.” Art exhibition will be on display May 15-July 18, encompassing single-artist “ambitious projects” and curated group sculpture and installation at Mount Ashland, Science Works Hands-On Museum, Willow-Witt Ranch, Vesper Meadow and Lithia Park.
2021
Indigenous Gardens Network receives Oregon Cultural Trust grant
Read the Press Release about the kick-off of the Indigenous Gardens Network – a hub for conversation and coordination around traditional food gathering areas throughout southwestern Oregon.
The project is a regional partnership that brings together diverse partners including tribes, educators, conservation organizations and land managers or owners to address barriers to first food access and cultivation. The Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians of Oregon, Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, Vesper Meadow Education Program and other regional partners are joining SOU on the project.
February 2021
One with the Story: A Tribute to Thomas Doty, “Rippling Out”
Watch this video tribute to one of our late Artists-in-Partnership, and Traditional Native American Storyteller Thomas Doty. Produced locally, “One With the Story” illuminates the man behind the magic he performed in sharing the wisdom of the Takelma people in such an engaging way. Thomas remains an inspiration to our work at Vesper Meadow, and a resource of local Indigenous knowledge throughout the region.
November 2020
Program Director, Jeanine Moy pays tribute to the late Thomas Doty in this four-part series.
The Oregon Vesper Sparrow parent forages grubs for its nestlings. Picture by Mel Clements
All are welcome to join the Vesper Watch Volunteers crew to track an imperiled species
Youth Help Protect Traditional Foods Through Healthy Traditions Leadership Camp
Youth members of the Confederated Tribes of Siletz visited Vesper Meadow in August 2019. They had a special visit with Agnes Baker Pilgrim, “Grandma Aggie,” the oldest member of the CTSI and Takelma elder. They also engaged in biological monitoring of butterflies and birds, leadership skills building, First Food seed harvest for on-site restoration, and camping under the stars. Read more in the Siletz News (pages 4-5).
August 2019
Local students and community volunteers assist with stream restoration during the Vesper Meadow Restoration Preserve’s first spring season. Photo by Linda Thomas
Learn more about about how to get involved with the Vesper Meadow Restoration Preserve.
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December 2018
We don’t just restore a landscape. If we want to do it right, we need to restore the people along with the landscape. It’s so easy to get caught up in the deeply grooved channels of our usual way of thinking.
Most people would just let the land go “back to nature” without stepping in to help. But by participating, we can not only bring the birds, deer, fish and other creatures back more quickly and robustly, we also slow ourselves down enough to gain something more from the process. Like a stream, we need to be allowed to meander. Our flow is too fast sometimes, and the only solution is to widen out.
It feels good to do so. It’s a whole different way of being alive. Jeanine’s vision involves bringing more people — artists, students, tourists, botanists — to Vesper Meadow. No matter how much they care — or believe themselves not to care — going in, my hunch is that they’ll care more when they leave. That’s how we’ll know the restoration is working.
Tuula Rebhahn - Writer, journalist / Read Full Article
The Rogue Valley Messenger
Looking to explore southern Oregon or learn more about the conservation community? Check out some of Vesper Meadow’s Director, Jeanine Moy’s musings and recommendations in the local weekly.
Adventures in Education
Local TV show host, John Letz, interviews Vesper Meadow’s Director Jeanine Moy to learn more about the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument, and the early stages of developing the Vesper Meadow program. Watch the recording here.
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