experts skilled at disassembling buildings and recycling
their materials removed the home.
By then Russell’s declining health kept her in bed
much of the time, and the effort proved to be her final
victory. It had a satisfying symmetry that recalled the
early days of her fight for the gorge. Not only did it complete Russell’s partial victory at Cape Horn, but also the
project was funded with a bequest from Norman Yeon,
brother of John Yeon, who on a moonlit night many
years before had put Russell’s passion to work.
Russell would die within weeks, but not before her
son Aubrey chartered the ambulance that brought her
back to Cape Horn on a stretcher to celebrate the demolition of the house and protection of the land. From this
prominence at the gorge’s western end, they gazed back up
the river over the land she had worked so hard to protect.
“We sat there for a while, just taking it all in, and
then I asked her, ‘Mom, where do you want to go
next?’” Aubrey remembers. “She looked up at me, smiling, and firmly but quietly replied, ‘East,’ to see the rest
of the land she knew and loved.”
In the months and weeks after her death, eulogies
for Russell sprouted like the wildflowers she loved.
Friends of the Columbia Gorge received hundreds of
tributes. Jim Desmond, Portland’s director of regional
parks and green spaces, told The Oregonian that Russell has
peers in the pantheon of conservation legends, but they
are people like Henry David Thoreau and John Muir.
“Every time someone takes a great hike or bike ride
or drive through the gorge, they have Nancy Russell to
thank for it,” he was quoted as saying.
At the Columbia Gorge Discovery Center south of
The Dalles, Russell also is remembered fondly. “We
needed someone with the patience and energy and
integrity to save the gorge before it got spoiled,” says
executive director Carolyn Purcell. “The gorge is what
it is because of the work Nancy Russell did.”
And while her own work is done, its momentum will
go on long into the future. Stronger than ever, the Friends
of the Columbia Gorge will continue to advocate for regulations and planning that protect the gorge’s character.
And TPL will continue to work with the Friends group
and with partners, donors, and legislators to protect the
gorge’s most scenic and vulnerable landscapes.
GEORGE WUERTHNER
Children frolic in blooming balsamroot at Rowena Dell. Since the 1980s,
TPL has completed 80 conservation projects to protect 17,000 acres in
the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area.
“This area will continue to grow, and people will
continue to come to the gorge, both as visitors and residents,” says TPL’s Bowen Blair. “It’s now up to us to
protect the gorge’s scenic beauty and natural
resources—to carry on the work Nancy started.”
Matt Villano, a freelance writer and editor based in
Healdsburg, California, last wrote for Land&People about
protecting land at Maho Bay in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Read
more about him at www.whalehead.com.
