| Mount Saint Helens volcanic peak towers over the surrounding valleys that are in the early stages of reforestation following the 1980 eruption.
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| Investigators |
| Dr. Joe Antos, Department of Botany, University of Victoria
Dr. Don Zobel, College of Forest Resources, Oregon State University
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What is the Issue? |
| LARGE-SCALE ECOLOGICAL DISTURBANCE AND FOREST REGROWTH |
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The 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens devastated ancient forests in the Cascade Mountains of southern Washington State. Global Forest is supporting an ongoing 20-year study examining research sites originally covered in volcanic ash. This work is providing a first hand account of how forest ecosystems recover and naturally reforest after a large-scale volcanic disturbance.
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What is our goal? |
| OBSERVING NATURAL REFORESTATION AFTER NATURAL CATASTROPHIC EVENTS.
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| Learning about reforestation from Mount St. Helens. |
Where we currently stand. |
| Fieldwork was completed by the end of August, 2000. As had been done for the last ten years, permanent research plots were re-sampled to detect changes in cover and density of all species, and changes in microsite characteristics. To date, all the field data have been obtained for this study. Data analysis is scheduled to take place in early 2001, with results ready by summer 2001. Findings will be disseminated through a major research paper which will discuss successional change in the vegetation of Mount St. Helens during the twenty years since the eruption.
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You can help this project - find out how. |
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