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Darian Thomas February 23, 2013 5th hour biology

Life Before and After

Before St. Helen began to awaken from it slumber, it was indeed surrounded by beautiful forest, lakes, and streams. It was a pot of gold for campers, explorers, and travelers. People loved to peak through me and my fellow trees mates. All eyes were stunned when walking through our land. Following a series of earthquakes during the previous week that laid under the Mt. St. Helens had begun to wake up! Yes, March 27, 1980 the 9,677 ft. mountain woke after long years of sleeping as biologist predicted. 250 ft. hole blasted in the middle exploding steam and ash. This wasnt a surprise to geologist who predicted this, but they couldve warned me! Then on a bright Sunday at 8:32 am on May 18, 1980, the shine on me was interrupted. It all happened in a instance, the WHOLE TOP of the mountain exploded with tons of ash, rock, and ice clouds that blew 15 miles up the air. I remember this site looking so spectacular! The northwest plank of the mountain had seemed to be gone. The southeast of the mountain had rushing mud falls. Due to the 12 ft. wall of water coming into the river caused by the melt of the ice of snow, it went knocking out bridges, a lot of camps by our forest and homes. By noon the ash had caused the eastern sides of the mountain pitch black leaving nothing to see like the end of the world. Everyone had to deal with the ash being everywhere because it was light and fine.

I was covered in ash, hardly being able to breathe let alone produce oxygen. I can remember thinking to myself, is this really happening? Ive been around a long time but dont remember anything happening like this. Blists of thoughts were running through my head as to will I survive. Acers of my forest was destroyed with nothing left but our dead trunks. 57 people died that couldnt be saved. It was told that Id be back naturally. So that past, present, and future generations cans see the rebuilding process of nature. My soul was left to tell you this story and the healing of devastating wounds. Primary successional processes and recovery patterns on the pumice plain were describes by Wood & del Moral. This study describes vegetation 13 years after the eruption. Wind played a big role in succession processes by blowing in spiders, insects, and seeds from undisturbed areas. Prairie lupine, a wildflower, was also one of the first plants to grow on this barren land. This plant even helped to fix nitrogen and improv e fertility of the soil to influence new growth. Pioneer species colonized the available area that is now the secondary succession process.