Nature Night: How Inmates Are Helping Revive an Endangered Oregon Butterfly
Federally endangered Taylor’s Checkerspot Butterflies were once abundant in the inland prairies of the Pacific Northwest. Almost two centuries of agricultural and urban growth have crowded out the butterflies, destroying 99 percent of their native habitats. However, a surprising partnership between the Oregon Zoo and the Washington and Oregon Departments of Corrections have resulted in the transformation of these landscapes as tens of thousands of captive-reared butterflies have been released into the wild – and in the transformation of lives for the women who work with this delicate species.
At this Nature Night, meet Oregon Zoo keeper Ronda Naseth, who has been entrenched in this conservation work alongside adults in custody at Coffee Creek Correctional Facility since 2017. Learn how the groundbreaking program at CCCF – the first of its kind dedicated to the rearing of the Oregon population of the Taylor’s Checkerspot, and the first butterfly conservation program to be housed in a medium security prison – came to be.
Find out what the program participants must do to nurture these tiny creatures, and what skills and qualities are nurtured within themselves as they do. You will also have the opportunity to ask questions of the visionary founders of this program, Rich Szlemp of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Chad Naugle of the Oregon Department of Corrections.
