Mt. St. Helens

Last year was the 25th anniversary of the Mount St. Helens eruption. Since that time scientists have been monitoring the colonization of plant and animal species as the ecosystem undergoes succession.

A report in National Geographic suggests that succession has been far less predictable than expected and has proceeded at different speeds in different areas.

The USDA maintains a good website about the Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument that has some good links to information on the eruption and the recovery of the communities.

Mount St. Helens is named after, Alleyne Fitzherbert, 1st Baron St Helens of St Helens in the County of Lancaster. This is the same, rather dismal, northern British town I grew up in. Having spent so much time on Wikipedia lately I couldn't resist looking it up. I was most amused to find the following item listed under 'Trivia'.

Residents of St Helens are known as "Woollybacks" which is an offensive term.

It's been a long while since I'd heard that term...