The government is trying to prevent a new disaster on Mt. St. Helens -- the breach of a 73-billion-gallon lake held in place by debris from the 1980 eruption.
manager for the Forest Service, said a massive surge of water, mud and debris could inundate cities below and disable four Columbia River ports: Longview, Vancouver and Kalama in Washington and the Port of Portland in Oregon.
Charlie Crisafulli, a Pacific Northwest Research Station ecologist, said that when he began work in the blast area in July 1980, scientists expected that life would recolonize merely from the edges.Northern pocket gophers — nocturnal creatures that survived underground when the volcano blew — emerged to build mounds, bringing up crucial carbon and nitrogen that helped plants to sprout.Willow bushes grew, attracting songbirds and beavers that built ponds. Deer and elk returned.
The monument’s centerpiece is the 8,366-foot mountain, which lost more than 1,300 feet from the eruption. The Johnston Ridge Observatory provides views of the exposed crater and a lava dome taller than the Seattle Space Needle.People remember exactly what they were doing 10 years ago this May 18: getting ready for church, taking care of chores, sipping cups of coffee.
“We all want research to continue, and it will continue,” Hoffman said. But she added that the act that created the monument also said that nothing would prevent the Forest Service from managing for public safety. Mt. St. Helens, viewed from a roadside viewpoint recently, is off-limits to visitors during the 40th anniversary of its eruption, because of the coronavirus outbreak.
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