30 years ago today, one of my favorite places in the world rose from the ashes...

[jmondine]

...of the terrible loss and destruction caused by the eruption of Mount St. Helens.

The Toutle River Valley today is unique beyond words. It is a bizarre landscape of marshlands, canyons, ash and rock more alien than any science fiction author could dream up.
When the smoke cleared on that day 30 years ago, it was beyond a desert, for a desert still holds the seeds of billions of wildflowers and other plants laying dormant, waiting sometimes for years for the next rain. There were no seeds here, at least none that could penetrate the massive lava deposit that buried everything in sight.

Yet now the valley teems with life. Marshes, wetland, greenery and massive beaver dams abound, and Roosevelt Elk graze contentedly. All of this, every part of it, is new. So many of our landscapes are the result of thousands or millions of years of geological forces. This is an environment, a landscape, an entire ecosystem that is younger than many of us.

John Muir said that the world, though made, is yet being made, that this is still the morning of Creation. Visitors to Mount St. Helens and the valley below it are witness to the very first rays of light piercing above the horizon of that morning. To stand in this wonderful place is to be present as Mother Nature gives birth to new life.

[KT2000]

1. Have you been watching ths shows?

I lived in Seattle at the time but we did not have CNN type coverage then. Some of the video they are showing now is amazing. I just remember seeing the still photos.
KCTS has a great show about it - hope they rerun it.

[gateley]

3. Working in downtown Seattle, we could just see it too the south - it was faint,

but astounding nonetheless. One of the news stories that I'll always remember is footage of Spokane. It had turned black as night because of all the ash, cars trying to drive and their wipers couldn't get the ash off quickly enough before the windshield was covered again. It was like someone was dumping a gigantic vacuum cleaner bag on them.

They've been doing lots of stories about it here for several days. Today they had a reporter/cameraman on who was there and thought he was going to die - he was recording his experiences as they were happening. Amazing to hear. And he said as terrified as he was, he was so grateful to have witnessed it so closely. He said the power of Mother Nature is indescribable, and too much for us to comprehend.

[KT2000]

5. Something I learned

on one of the shows is that the people right there did not hear it. The gas was faster than the speed of sound!
I was in Sequim visitng my father the day it blew and we heard - I think 3 or 5 loud booms that just shook the house. He turned on his police scanner and they had reports of broken windows and didn't know for quite a while what was going on. Then they put the word out that St. Helens blew.

A fellow in Victoria who researched the booms concluded that it was percussion bouncing off the Olympic Mountains. They got the booms in Victoria too.

Anyway - we really were all witnesses to an amazing even, huh?

[gateley]

12. Wow - I hadn't heard that part of it -- never even thought of the sound. Percussion

bouncing off the Olympics, can you imagine?

[KT2000]

15. I guess I said that wrong

the sound waves struck the mountains creating the percussion (booms). :blush:

[gateley]

17. I knew what you meant - you described it perfectly. nt

[tavalon]

7. We don't have TV

but I'm fairly sure he'll find what's on the net. And I've been given the strong hint that what he wants for Father's day is a trip to the Toutle River Valley.

[gateley]

2. And Mother Nature moved more quickly than they thought she would. If we just

stay out of her way, she knows exactly what to do.

You paint such a gentle picture. I'll head on down soon to bask in the beauty and wonder.

[tavalon]

8. Doesn't he though?

And I can attest to the fact that this man has an abiding love of nature, especially mountainous nature. I felt guilty for a while for pulling him away from a job he loved in Texas but he's made it abundantly clear that being so close to many beautiful mountains has more than made up for that.

[tavalon]

9. DU Road Trip!!

:woohoo:

[gateley]

11. Yeah! nt

[scubadude]

4. Mother nautre has a way of fighting back these big natural distaters.

It's the little ones that have trouble bouncing back. Specific case in point, the Marianas King Fisher.

The Kingfisher is a very territorial and active bird, but the introduction onto the Isle Guam of the Brown Tree Snake by the fighters in WWII has completely devastated their population and now there are no specimens in the wild. Hopefully a small breeding stock in the zoos of the world and control of the snake will bring them back. But if this effort fails, it may be some time before we can genetically build them back into a viable population, if ever.

Sometimes we are lucky, others we are not. What we must be though is ready.

Scuba

[jmondine]

10. Very true

Introducing feral species is never a good thing. I volunteer at Woodland Park Zoo here in Seattle, where we're taking an active role in trying to save our native Western Pond Turtle from feral bullfrogs. So far, we've been very successful, though it's still up in the air whether or not the turtles will ever be able to sustain their population without our assistance.

Nature will march on. Life will find a way, guaranteed. What isn't guaranteed is the survival of any individual species. Including us.

[RT Atlanta]

13. Zoo

When I lived in Seattle and would run at Greenlake Park, I could sometimes hear the Howler Monkeys over at the zoo and it would make me smile. God I miss Seattle!

Cheers!

[scubadude]

14. My wife is a Docent and the Brookfield Zoo.

They have a mated pair of Marianas Kinfishers. There are very few but sometimes the breeding is successful.

Perhaps if we get the brown tree snake under control the Kinfisher may one day soar over Guam and the other Marianis Islands as it once did. I sure hope it does.

Scuba

[jmondine]

16. They're still there

Simon and Briony's songs still resonate all over the area. They're actually siamang gibbons, Tropical Asia's equivalent of howler monkeys. When the weather's colder, they can be seen kicking back in their indoor space. Simon in particular is very sweet and friendly.

[Hekate]

6. What a smile you brought to my face.