Let me make a second consideration of that little boy growing up in the 1950’s Ohio mine country. What a life, riding in trucks and on dozers, watching 1000’s of pounds of explosives go off; the noise, the dust, the flying rocks, the smell of expended nitrates!
As a man, in my personal experience with Mt. St. Helens, I marveled at both the scale of the event and the effects. There was no comparison to the few thousands of acres I observed in Ohio. Yet over time, nature had her way and the green returned on both sites. Now, almost 30 years later, satellite photos show green everywhere on St. Helens except at the top. The barren reaches, the gray pinnacle and even the crater region are not much larger, than it was pre-1980.
Returning to live in the Midwest, I had an opportunity in the late 1990’s to drive along US 250 in Stark County, Ohio. It wasn’t until passing the remains of the old tipple did I realize that this was that site of my childhood mining experience. A U-turn and a few minutes orientation and there was “the mine”.
40 years later, after that little boy had watched the land in Stark County become desolate; the man discovered a site wooded with red oaks and sugar maples. Where the mining ended, there was a large lake with pontoons floating and evidence of evening campfires, the water was clean and deep.
It was not clear, how much man intervention occurred on the Ohio site. I chose not to trespass (too far), but what was clear was the speed at which plants and climax tree species spread across the site. On that brief inspection, it was evident that 15”+ diameter oaks were common, pervasive and growing well, with height, caliper and green canopy. Under story plants are widespread and forest litter covered the ground. If this site could not be declared “healthy”, it would surely be categorizes at growing in vitality and entropy. Check it out: Google Earth – 40o40’50.34”N 81o40’17.12”W
The Mt. St. Helens eruption was a natural event, which has happened at least three different times in 2,000 years. The mining event happened only once. “The Earth” was altered, but not hurt by either event. A generation of people were impacted (many benefited for the mining actions), yet less than 50 years after, both sites grew back into an active “native” state.
Many will disagree with me, but whether natural event, which is grand in scale or man-made events, which are localized, “The Earth” is much bigger and far stronger then we can estimate, or some promote.
