Thirty-three years ago Washington’s Mount St. Helens erupted and collapsed, creating a massive avalanche and a stone and ash filled wind that decimated the surrounding countryside. Nearly 150 square miles of old growth ancient forest were destroyed almost instantly — and then the eruption continued for nine more hours. What was once a lush, green landscape was now a barren, gray landscape. Many advocated for rapid salvage logging of the trees destroyed by the eruption and laying at the bottom of lakes and rivers and streams, but no such salvage was allowed. Today, the logs still rest there, and laws written to protect the environment may never allow a single log recovery.
http://www.americanforests.org/blog/geology-vs-ecology/
While 30 plus years might seem like a long time to you and I, in ecological terms, recovery has only just begun. It’ll take centuries for the old-growth forest of firs (like Pacific silver and Douglas-fir) and hemlocks to regenerate fully. It’s amazing how one geologic event — a 5.1 Richter-scale earthquake that shook the volcanic mountain, causing the collapse and eruption — can destroy centuries of ecological work. And, it serves as a lesson that once destroyed, nature is not always easy to replace.
Weyerhaeuser began a reforestation program, which continues today. In total 18.4 million trees were planted on over 45,500 acres. While logs from rivers lakes and streams were not salvaged. Quick action was necessary to salvage the downed timber on land because of the risk of disease and insect damage to the fallen timber. More than 1,000 people were involved. During peak summer periods more than 600 truckloads of salvaged logs were removed each day. By November 1982 this phase of the recovery was largely complete. The result? 850 million board feet of timber was saved — enough to build 85,000 three bedroom homes.
http://www.formationsinc.com/about/pr/mt-st-helens.html
