The true story of community-powered land restoration as told by three charismatic creatures.
Prepare to gain some rare insights from some wild yet friendly neighbors of yours! Jeanine Moy of Vesper Meadow will share fantastical but true stories from several years of community organizing for biocultural restoration, and personal anecdotes from growing a close relationship to a special place. You might just want to ask a beaver about his feelings of returning home after 20 years away from the creek he has loved… or find yourself intrigued by a rare local butterfly the size of your fingernail. And for sure you will want to talk to the fields of Camas lilies who have waited patiently for over a century for their tenders to return….
The Vesper Meadow Education Program (VM) mission is to inspire a culture of land stewardship and nature connection. We paint the picture of resilient communities and ecosystems with hands-on programming at our flagship location, the 1000-acre Vesper Meadow Restoration Preserve, where stewards and students work on long-term efforts for ecological restoration, climate resiliency, scientific monitoring of rare species and biodiversity, and community projects for reconnection of the human-land relationship. Programs address our society’s need for holistic thinkers by integrating diverse learning perspectives and practicing solutions-based approaches to address climate change and issues of social justice.
As a naturalist, educator, creative, activist, and backcountry adventurer, Jeanine Moy draws on a diverse background for the Vesper Meadow Education Program. Founding the Vesper Meadow Restoration Preserve and Education Program (in 2018) is the ongoing fulfillment of a vision renewing the understandings of the human-land relationship for mutual restoration.
Jeanine has devoted the last few decades to the study of natural ecosystems and serving as an educator and community organizer. Her range of experiences include managing an agroforestry research and demonstration site in upstate New York, conducting plant field studies in the greater Yellowstone region, guiding rock climbing in Colorado, and teaching outdoor science to youth in Oregon. She graduated from Cornell University with a B.S. in Applied Ecology, and from Southern Oregon University with a M.S. in Environmental Education.
Living in Southern Oregon the last 15 years, she is at home among other naturalists and enjoys the intricate landscape and biodiversity. She is grateful for experiences such as working at the Klamath Bird Observatory, the Willow Wind Community Education Center, the Northwest Nature Shop, the Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center and founding the Ashland Trail Trekkers summer camp.
