Mt. St Helens, logged and unlogged

[slowp]

I heard and it was true, that the road into the blast area was closed to motorized traffic. Part of the road was gone. So I loaded up dog and bike and drove to the gate. I hadn't been up in that part of the blast area for 20+ years. I took off on the bicycle, and my new used dog ran alongside. I stopped at every creek so he could cool off.


There was quite a difference between logged and planted, and the part left alone. One could find a private restroom in the plantation, and shade for the dog and lunch.

Here is the logged and planted area with the volcano in the background.

This area was left unlogged and unplanted.

It was strange, there were vans and trucks in behind the gate. Apparently a movie was being filmed. I saw guys carefully placing debris IN the road for later shots and a caterer tent being put up. There were also people riding bikes in camo and two of them had rifles slung over their shoulders.
Here's the happiness of left over snow. We had covered about 9 miles round trip with a mile to go back to the pickup.

I was trying to remember if the plantation I ate lunch in was in the area we burned. When I first moved here, most all the logging was completed, but we had the slash left to burn. We also had to do the mopup of those burns and got sunburned from the light reflecting off the ash and pumice. One guy used post its to protect his nose when working in that area.

 

[redprospector]

Imagine that, logging & replanting might be an ecologicaly sound idea after all.
Nice pics slowp, thanks for posting them.

Andy

 

[redlaker]

somewhere there is an enviro lobbyist patting themself on the back for that area that didnt get logged...

way to go!!! really took one back for the good guys!

 

[Bushler]

Those pics and the explanation, priceless.

Pretty hard to dispute the success of hand planted trees.

 

[Gologit]

Why not have those pictures blown up to poster size and hang them in your office somewhere? Maybe with the caption , under the reprod picture, "It could've all looked like this by now" Maybe put the same caption under the other picture, too.

Might want to wait 'til you're a little closer to retirement, though.

 

[slowp]

somewhere there is an enviro lobbyist patting themself on the back for that area that didnt get logged...

way to go!!! really took one back for the good guys!

They weren't too strong politically quite yet, then. It was researchers and then the monument was made. I remember we almost burned up the monument when some spot fires started in the down trees. We were slash burning. We got the fires out. I think the plantations really need to be thinned but I don't know much about Noble Fir and the plantations are now in the Monument too. Looks like good huckleberries in the unlogged stuff but they don't want you picking them.

 

[Humptulips]

What possible reason is there for keeping people from picking berries?

 

[Mike Van]

Great pics - Thank you - I keep this link http://www.fs.fed.us/gpnf/volcanocams/msh/images/mshvolcanocam.jpg in my favorites, the webcam shows whats up with the volcano - Nice to see snow there in July when it's so stinking hot here!

 

[redprospector]

What possible reason is there for keeping people from picking berries?

Why, if you picked some of those berries you'd be taking food right out of the mouth of some poor critter.

Andy

 

[slowp]

There's also been talk about making the monument a National Park. Then there'd be even more rules. If any timber was cut near it, there'd probably have to be a buffer, then a buffer of the buffer, and so on...

Hmmm, on second thought, maybe a buffer for the above might be a clearcut?
Note that little square of trees on the left side of the drainage. It was a square and I think it must be some sort of a research plot. In my not so secret anymore huckleberry patch, there are some permanent plots set up. It is on the edge of the blast area out of the monument.

Gopher research was a big thing after the blast. Since the blast went when snow was still on the ground, the critters underground were more apt to survive.

 

[Bushler]

I rode through there a few years back and noticed a huge amount of timber plugging up the lake. What was the reason for leaving all that wood in the lake?

Your pics really do dramatize the huge loss of revenue we suffer from poor management policy. Bet that soil would really grow some nice trees for the future gens. to harvest and enjoy.