— Written by Marnie McPhee

When you first get out of your car at Soapstone, a flagstone path lined with a micro-landscape of greens, purples, whites and reds welcomes youto the quiet beauty of the Coast Range forest. You stretch and breathe in the moist forest air.

It looks so natural. It’s supposed to. For that, we thank Jürgen Hess.

Imagine this scene. It’s November. Cool and damp. Perfect transplanting weather. Jürgen and his wife Susan are working side by side in their dripping rain gear, carefully digging clumps of dazzling, three-lobed wood sorrel from Soapstone’s second-growth forest, and then tenderly replanting them in the beds along the path. They nestle wind-felled branches around spiky sword ferns. They dig holes for trees and shrubs: vine maple, red-osier dogwood, mock-orange, Pacific ninebark, and Nootka rose. They mark the new plants with colored flags. As they work, they literally sing in the rain, belting out old show tunes in happy harmony.

Their hands bring decades of landscape design and forest protection experience to Soapstone. Here, as in their own yard in Hood River and three parcels they’ve adopted nearby, they nurture the land.

Jürgen is the landscape architect and designer; Susan, who has enjoyed two Soapstone residencies, is his helper. He seeks out her insights, just as she asks him to read her writing.

“The cabin as an opening in the forest,” Jürgen explains. “We want to keep that as natural as possible, but we’ll have to work to keep the meadow open, because nature will want to fill it up, with Sitka spruce and elderberry.” He’s ringing the buildings with native plants that are appealing, hardy and equally tolerant of summer drought and winter deluge. He’s selected grasses and small, low plants with interesting colors and textures, to soften the edges, stabilize the banks, and preserve the views into the forest. “Practically, we must keep plants away from the buildings to deter mold, mildew and carpenter ants,” he says. “And we’ll always want to ensure that there’s a ‘doorway’ into the Avenida de las Angeles, so it’s like a magic gateway into the forest.”

The rest of the 22 acres will be allowed to return to a native Sitka-spruce dominated forest with only some thinning of the abundant same-age alders to encourage a more diverse and healthy treescape.

Summer Soapstone residents help out by watering the young plants until they’re well established. After that, they’ll need little maintenance other than occasional weeding. Jürgen has provided a “What Is a Weed?” guide for Soapstone residents who want to take a gardening break from their writing.

This is Jürgen’s kind of job. In his former life, he spent decades protecting Northwest forests’ beauty and natural resources, first as a landscape architect with the Rogue River National Forest near Medford, and then as the Land-Use Planner for the Columbia Gorge National Scenic Area. He protected view corridors and watersheds, and harmonized forestry and new homes with nature.

When he “retired” from the Forest Service, he continued his landscape architecture practice. “I always have two clients: the earth and people,” he says. He’s particularly excited about the restoration of Camp Westwind, part of the Cascade Head protected biosphere reserve north of Lincoln City, on the central Oregon coast. He feels a natural cross-pollination between his work there and Soapstone. 
  
He also does a lot of pro bono naturescaping work, such as this project for Soapstone, as well as others for schools and Columbia Riverkeeper, a stewardship organization in Hood River. As his passion for plants has grown, he’s taught classes on earth-friendly landscaping, and produced a booklet about native plants and lists of plants best suited to the Oregon coast and Columbia River Gorge.

Together, he and Susan also give tours of their own yard, which is an urban native plant wildlife oasis. And they restore small parcels of public land in the Hood River area. They buy, plant and maintain the plants and pick up litter weekly; other volunteers help with the planting. “It’s a way to give back for the very fortunate life I’ve had— including my wonderful relationship with Susan and our two daughters, and such good jobs that allowed me to provide for our family and work with natural resources,” he notes.

Jürgen credits his father for giving his family “the gift of nature.” “Over the years – and I don’t know how it happened – plants just crept up on me,” he says. “They became part of my whole love of the land. The magic and awe of plants can enlighten us and reveal so many things, including humility. I’ve evolved gradually, from admiring how plants have adapted and lived for years, to an almost spiritual awareness.”

You’ll feel the love of Jürgen and Susan’s hands and hearts in the early white of trillium and blue violet, the mid-season snacks of juicy salmonberries and raspberry-like thimbleberries, the late-season purple flash of aster, and the year-round delight of resilient salal and huckleberry—a foreground that complements the ever-changing forest.

“This landscape never will be ‘ done’,” Jürgen says. “People’s relationship to land is like people’s relationship to people. If you want it to last, you must nurture and maintain that relationship. Nature is very capable of managing her lands just fine, but when we set a building in a forest, with a program like Soapstone, there will always be a need for thoughtful management.”

http://www.columbiagorgeinstitute.com/
Jürgen can be contacted at hess@gorge.net and Susan at cgi@gorge.net.

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