« Back to Mount St. Helens watch | Archives: January 2005
A sign of recovery from 1980 blast
The elk population, it seems, is healthy enough to be thinned. This, via AP:
Before daybreak recently, Bill Davidson and his hunting partner were perched on a hillside a few hundred yards above one of the state's most protected elk herds.
Davidson was one of 10 hunters who had tags to hunt the herd in the Mount St. Helens State Wildlife Area along the Toutle River.
"I was the first one in there," said Davidson, 57, who lives in Kelso. "By 7:45 a.m. I had an elk."
This is the first year since the volcano erupted in 1980 that hunting has been allowed in the Loowit game unit around Mount St. Helens. Department of Fish and Wildlife officials will decide early next year whether to allow more there.
The 72,000-acre Loowit game unit, which includes the Spirit Lake basin and the upper part of the Toutle valley, was established to let game animals recover from the eruption. Elk prospered on the clover and grasses that were planted to stabilize the debris flow. In winter months, the herd has been known to swell to 500 _ more than the area can support.
Magnificent photos
Steam rises from Mount St. Helens on Monday, Jan. 3, 2005. (AP Photo/The Columbian, Janet L. Mathews)
Steam rises from Mount St. Helens. Mt. Hood is seen in the background. (AP Photo/The Columbian, Janet L. Mathews)
St. Helens mercury emissions studied
Interesting story, via AP:
Perched at 5,400 feet, seven miles from a sputtering volcano, Michael Abbott feared only one thing: snow.
"I was more worried that we would get caught in a snowstorm than Mount St. Helens erupting," he said.
However, Mother Nature and Mount St. Helens cooperated enough over a six-day span this autumn for Abbott to conduct valuable research on mercury emissions given off by the volcano. By studying mercury emissions from natural sources like volcanoes, Abbott hopes to apply his understanding of mercury to efforts in developing controls on man-made emitters like coal-fired power plants, such as the one being discussed east of Glenns Ferry near the Twin Falls County line.
"We're trying to understand what are the contributors to the atmosphere," Abbott said.
