Mount St. Helens erupting with new life 25 years later
MOUNT ST. HELENS — The rainbow trout flexed and flopped as Charlie Crisafulli scraped a few scales from its side with a knife.
“The fish are very large this year,” he said, before releasing the 5-pounder back to its watery home.
When Crisafulli first ventured onto the moonscape left behind by Mount St. Helens’ May 18, 1980, eruption, Spirit Lake was lifeless. His discovery of a single lupine growing near its shores two years later was cause for wonder.
Now, as the U.S. Forest Service ecologist begins his 25th season on the volcano’s flanks, thickets of trees shelter a growing number of animals and the lake supports abundant frog, salamander and fish populations.
The scales from the trout — and many more like it — will reveal the animals’ ages. Biologists in snorkel gear will swim transects in the lake’s shallows, counting fish and searching out the gelatinous egg sacs of amphibians.
The riotous return of life to the mountain upsets conventional notions about the way nature heals its wounds and offers blueprints for repairing damage done by man.
But much of the insight about St. Helens’ recovery has been parceled out in scientific papers that deal with little slices of the landscape, like the spread of beetles, or the way airborne seeds took root. The big picture is visible mainly to scientists like Crisafulli, who have made the mountain their life’s work.
Now, he and two other researchers who were among the first to venture into the blast zone within months of the big eruption are extending the view to a wider audience. In a paper published in today’s issue of the journal Science, they summarize 25 years of ecological change at the volcano. And in a book that will roll off the presses soon, they document the work of dozens of researchers who have taken advantage of one of the world’s most unique natural laboratories.
“It’s important to share this information,” said Virginia Dale, an ecologist who started tracking plant death and rebirth within weeks of the 1980 blast. “It would also be great to inspire more people to get out there and do research.”
The publications come at a time when Mount St. Helens’ ecosystems are beginning to rebound more rapidly than ever before, said Dale, whose work has been paid for by National Geographic.
Willow trees in some spots top 20 feet, and are as densely packed as a jungle. Montane shrews, Pacific jumping mice and every other species of small mammal found in the Cascades have returned. The first Douglas fir trees to regrow are finally bearing cones this summer.
“Early on, frankly, we spent a lot of time monitoring plots where there wasn’t a lot going on,” said Dale, who now works for Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee. “Now we’re at the stage where the dynamics are really changing quickly.”
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Mount St. Helens erupting with new life 25 years later