BOOKMONGER
Mount St. Helens,
40 years aft er the blast
Book details research on volcano
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It’s hard to believe that Mount St. Helens
erupted 40 years ago this week.
In his lively new book, “After the Blast,”
Seattle writer Eric Wagner delves into the
fascinating research around the volcano.
Geologists, hydrologists, biologists, bota-
nists and others have probed, weighed, mea-
sured and counted, tracking the return of life
in the post-eruptive landscape.
The eruption on May 18, 1980 turned
hundreds of square miles of Washington
state’s South Cascades into an unrecogniz-
able gray landscape of rock and ash. Just a
few weeks later, three U.S. Forest Service
scientists ventured into the blast zone by
helicopter to make a preliminary assessment
of the obliteration that had occurred.
Fred Swanson, Jerry Franklin and Jim
Sedell operated under the assumption that it
might take decades for life to respond to the
scoured slopes and valleys surrounding the
mountain. By documenting the destruction
after a disturbance of this magnitude, they
intended to establish a baseline to measure
the slow recovery ahead.
But the moment they landed in the
ash-covered landscape, they realized they
were late to the party. Sprouts of fi reweed,
thistles and pearly everlasting were begin-
ning to poke through the volcanic deposits.
Insects skittered across the surface. There
was even evidence that pocket gophers were
pushing up from their subterranean tunnels,
where they were protected from the eruption.
Franklin was amazed. “(A)ll of us smart
ecologists realized we didn’t have the correct
working hypothesis.”
It was clear that they had plenty to learn.
Scientists of all kinds were interested in tak-
ing part.
Wagner writes about the wide range of
individuals who have dedicated years, some-
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14 // COASTWEEKEND.COM
This Week’s Book
‘After the Blast’ by Eric Wagner
University of Washington Press — 248 pp
— $29.95
times their entire careers, to the study of how
life has rebounded in this landscape. He goes
into detail about several specifi c research
projects and the people who originated them.
Much of the research is ongoing, hav-
ing been handed off to a new generation of
scientists who are continuing to learn about
the resilience of different life forms and
the strategies they have for surviving and
thriving.
The book also explores some of the
tedium involved in the day-to-day opera-
tions: weighing biofi lm (a layman might call
it slime) in Spirit Lake, for example, or get-
ting down on hands and knees to document
the number of plant species that colonize
different plots of land over time. Despite
the tedious nature of these tasks, Wagner
demonstrates that all of these kinds of work
are important and engaging in their own
way. Sometimes they even produce laugh-
out-loud moments.
One of this book’s takeaways is some-
thing we’ve also been seeing play out during
the coronavirus pandemic, as wildlife makes
incursions into territory often claimed by
humans: the recognition that if you can just
keep humans from mucking around too
much, Mother Nature will move right back
in.
This book is highly recommended.
The Bookmonger is Barbara Lloyd
McMichael, who writes this weekly column
focusing on the books, authors and publish-
ers of the Pacifi c Northwest. Contact her at
bkmonger@nwlink.com.
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