For a philanthropic couple in Oregon, the sighting on a trail camera of one of North America’s most elusive animals was both surprising and not.
Bill and Sarah Epstein had committed a large plot of family-owned land to conservation, and so the appearance of a “ringtail” or “miner’s cat” was a sign that their work has been a success.
The Epstein Family Forest, in Oregon’s Siskiyou Mountains, is described by the trust that manages it as “a rich mosaic of oak woodlands, conifer forests, riparian corridors, and wetlands—supporting rare wildlife and clean water.”
It doesn’t come much rarer than the ringtail, even if it’s not considered endangered.
Despite being the cousin of the common raccoon, don’t expect to see the ringtail digging through your garbage. Nocturnal, rarely studied, smaller than a house cat, and protected under federal law even before the Endangered Species Act existed, it can be seen in the video jumping into the camera’s view, rearing up to look about, and then walking away, the rings on its tail testifying to its namesake.
Because of their rodent-hunting abilities, they were often kept as pets in mining camps and cabins, earning them the name “miner’s cat” or “ring-tailed cat”—despite not being felines.
The sighting on the 405-acre Epstein Family Forest, located near Ashland, didn’t happen by chance. Landowners Bill and Sarah have spent decades restoring a heavily damaged forest and subdivision of country homes into a model for conservation and fire-resilient, ecologically managed forest.
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They bought the land decades ago after it had been heavily logged and burned by a historic wildfire in 1973. The years of helping to return the ecosystem to a native state has seen hundreds of species of birds, amphibians, mammals come to range across that land as their habitats flow across the boundaries of public and private lands.
Since a member of the family received a stage-4 cancer diagnosis, they have been working with the Pacific Forest Trust to complete a “working forest conservation easement” on the land.
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Such an easement is a permanent legal agreement that keeps forests in production while ensuring management practices support biodiversity and ecosystem health.
“It is a profound comfort to know the goals we have for our property will be steadfastly managed and protected in perpetuity,” the couple said in a statement.
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