Almost three decades after blowing its top, what’s left of mystical Mount St. Helens stares — menacing as ever (weather permitting) — at Clark County residents. Our volcano is a continual source of surprise and amazement.
For example, many Clark County residents are surprised to learn that the volcano is not really ours, that is, in our county. The next guess by many of those people would be that Mount St. Helens is in Cowlitz County to our north, as the Johnston Ridge Observatory is accessed via Castle Rock on Interstate 5. Actually, though, the volcano is situated in Skamania County, less than three miles from its western edge.
Other people are surprised to learn that, just before the famous eruption in 1980, the largest landslide in recorded history roared down the mountain’s northern flanks, triggering a more horizontal eruption than is typical elsewhere.
Beyond those relatively trivial notes, more serious attention is paid to Mount St. Helens almost daily as entranced observers wonder: Will today bring another blast like 1980’s? Or perhaps a lesser eruption as in 2005 when steam and ash rose 36,000 feet into the air?
For all the attention we pay to it, you’d think we could convince the federal government to spend more money preserving and protecting the Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument. And that was the main point expressed recently by a 14-member advisory committee. The group culminated its work with a report issued Tuesday in a video teleconference that also involved Vancouver Congressman Brian Baird and Sens. Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray. The committee’s primary purpose was to study the possibility of moving the volcano from the jurisdiction of the U.S. Forest Service to that of the National Park Service, in which case it would become the state’s fourth national park. The committee advised against such a change, but only temporarily. If funding does not increase, said Skamania County Commissioner and committee co-chair Paul Pearce, “We will be the first ones that come right back to you in two years and say, ‘It’s not working.’”
We cheer such an aggressive stance because for too long the Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument has been neglected by federal purse-string pullers. As Erik Robinson reported in Wednesday’s Columbian, the Forest Service became so tight with its dollars that the Coldwater Ridge Visitor Center was closed in 2007, only 14 years after it opened.
In terms of international prestige and popularity, Mount St. Helens certainly outranks northern California’s Lassen Volcanic National Park, especially since the 1980 eruption. And yet, according to Robinson’s story, Lassen is run by the National Park Service on an annual budget of $4.5 million while Mount St. Helens struggles to get by on less than $2 million in recreational funding and money for roads and facilities.
That’s unacceptable, and the advisory committee made that point crystal clear.
Occasionally our volcano lands some sporadic funding efforts such as the Forest Service’s commitment to build a $400,000 amphitheater at Johnston Ridge Observatory. And Gifford Pinchot National Forest officials plan several million dollars in improvements to public facilities in and around the volcanic monument.
But as Baird noted, “(t)he take-home message for us is the general sense that the Forest Service ought to continue in the lead, but only with the proviso that funding should be adequate.” So now it’s up to the state’s congressional delegation — plus continual monitoring by the advisory committee — to make sure Mount St. Helens receives the full funding it needs. If not, make it a national park.
