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Mount St. Helens, Washington -
Life Returns to Mount St. Helens


-- Excerpts from: U.S. Forest Service, Volcano Reviews

Northern Pocket Gopher

The pocket gopher is the farmer of a new landscape near the volcano. Though you may never see on of these palm-size mammals, they are abundant throughout much of the blast area. Gophers leave evidence of their winter's work as the snow melts and reveals long earth cores atop the ash. You may be surprised to find these cores are solid upon close inspection. The pocket gopher forms tunnels in the deep snow, then as it feeds on underground plant parts, it brings up fertile soil from below the ash, stuffing these long snow tunnels. This soil mixture becomes a seed bed for new plant life which, in turn, may provide roots and bulbs for a new generation of gophers. -- Excerpt from: USFS, 1998, Volcano Review: U.S. Forest Service, Summer/Fall 1998




Elk

Surprisingly, elk or "wapiti" were seen on the landslide deposit west of the volcano only weeks after the May 18, 1980, eruption. In recent years, as more plant life emerges, these large relatives of deer move throughout the blast zone, feeding in the valleys in winter and moving to the higher slopes in the spring and summer. As they climb steep slopes, their hooves erode the volcanic debris, uncovering soil and speeding the return of plants. Even the droppings of elk contribute valuable nutrients for plants, and carry plant seeds far into the blown down forest area, thus helping with the reintroduction of vegetation. -- Excerpt from: USFS, 1998, Volcano Review: U.S. Forest Service, Summer/Fall 1998

Image, Elk, Upper Toutle
USGS Photo by Lyn Topinka




Mountain Bluebird

The downed trees and shattered trunks of the remaining forest near the volcano have provided homes for some forest creatures. The mountain bluebird nests in cavities found in snags. These birds prefer open areas where they feed on insects. The sky-blue color of the male bird contrasts with the ashen colors in the blast zone. Its soft high warble can be heard in the early morning. -- Excerpt from: USFS, 1998, Volcano Review: U.S. Forest Service, Summer/Fall 1998




Fireweed

From seeds that float like parachutes in the wind, these hardy plants send out roots that can reach fertile soil below the sterile volcanic ash. By mid-summer the slopes and ridges near the volcano abound with the flaming pink flowers that appear in clusters along a stem. As the plants die back in the fall their leaves and stems collect on the ash providing organic matter for the creation of new soil. -- Excerpt from: USFS, 1998, Volcano Review: U.S. Forest Service, Summer/Fall 1998

Image, Fireweed on Harrys Ridge
USGS Photo by Lyn Topinka




Research Yields New Perspectives

Over the last 17 years scientists have developed some interesting theories about how ecosystems respond to large-scale disturbance. The Monument and the variety of "experimental" settings created by the volcano have become an important laboratory for testing these ideas. The following are a couple of examples:

Animals, from the tiniest wood-boring insect to the largest elk, appear to be having a profound influence on the developing vegetation. Animals are selecting and colonizing areas on the basis of habitat characteristics and, in turn, helping to shape habitat structure and composition. A comparatively simple system like Mount St. Helens offers a great opportunity to investigate developing habitat relationships.

Plants representing all major stages of forest development appear to be establishing simultaneously. This contradicts classic ecological theory that describes the orderly establishment and successive replacement of one group of plants by another (for example, mosses followed by grasses by shrubs by trees). Classic theory, based upon studies of abandoned fields and formerly glaciated terrain, does no appear to apply at Mount St. Helens.

-- Excerpt from: Peter Frenzen, 1998, Volcano Review: U.S. Forest Service, Summer/Fall 1998


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09/30/04, Lyn Topinka