Volcanic Monument

In 1982, Congress established the Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument. It includes 110,000 acres of devastated land, unique caves and old growth forests. The U.S. Forest Service manages the land for research, recreation and interpretation.

Scientists have learned important lessons from the "biological laboratory" at Mount St. Helens. They have discovered that nature rarely destroys everything. It leaves behind a legacy with remains of the old forest. Examples include snags that provide homes for birds, or young trees that survived because they were protected under snow.

Also, the forest succession was not what textbooks predicted. Instead of a natural order with some species following others, everything came back at once and is now competing for space. This is changing the way we think about forest succession after large-scale disasters.

Since the view at right is a live image of the crater, you may not be able to see anything if it is dark or overcast in the Pacific Northwest.

View the USFS VolcanoCam page.

Image courtesy United States Forest Service.