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St. Helens Eruption Changed Weyerhaeuser Forever |
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Written On: November/December 2005 |
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Written By: by Charles Henry Thomas |
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The ink was barely dry on the 1900 buy-sell agreement between the James J. Hill and Frederick Weyerhaeuser when nature unleashed its fury around Mount St. Helens. It instantly devoured a good-sized chunk of the three million acres that Hill sold to Weyerhaeuser and 11 Midwestern investors to finance completion of the Northern Pacific Railroad from Minneapolis to Seattle.
The Yacolt Burn, the largest forest fire in recorded state history, destroyed 238,920 acres of timber—more than 370 square miles. After a scorching summer with temperatures hovering in the mid 90s, on September 11, 1902 dry east winds fanned flames from land-clearing and slash burns south and east of the 9,500-foot peak. Within 36 hours the wall of fire roared 36 miles and killed 38 people.
When rain extinguished the fire, $30 million in timber—more than $600 million in 2001 dollars—were engulfed, blackened or charred. To salvage part of their investment, Weyerhaeuser started logging. They scrapped their original plan to simply grow timber and sell it to local mill owners. Nature forced leaders of the new company to take on a risky, dangerous and, in those days, an injury-prone part of the lumber business.
Fast Forward to 1980
A quarter century ago, Weyerhaeuser’s St. Helens Tree Farm, give or take 450,000 acres, was a managed forest, lush and green. The operation flourished using intensive forestry practices called high-yield forestry.
Trees were cut, planted, thinned, fertilized, thinned again and then harvested. High-yield trees from the company nurseries replaced the ones sent down the road on log trains and truck. These grew faster and healthier. They could be harvested in half the time—unless nature punctured the cycle. The entire industry from tree-planters to loggers became much safer and productive.
Company logging crews sent thinnings and small logs to its Green Mountain mill near Toutle, and its large second- and old-growth timber to Longview for sorting, milling and sale to local and overseas buyers. Bark and sawdust were pulverized and burned for electricity and steam. Cull logs and leftovers were chipped for two company pulp mills in the Longview complex—a mammoth operation that, if spun-off, would be a major integrated forest products company in itself. Even alder, once viewed as a hardwood "weed" that foresters aimed to eradicate, was put to good use in furniture and for pulp.
Business was good, but suddenly nature signaled an impending calamity. The earth began to shake deep beneath what Americans fondly called America’s Mount Fuji. Mount St. Helens had awakened after 123 years of silence.
On March 27, 1980, seven days after the first earthquake rumbled beneath the mountain, a vent opened in the summit spewing clouds of steam and ash. Unlike other volcanoes which blow their tops without warming or oozed rivers of glowing red-orange molten lava, scientists started noticing something different in southwest Washington.
Dixy Sets Up a Red Zone
Nobody knew what to expect, but then Gov. Dixy Lee Ray, a former science professor at the University of Washington, set up the "Red Zone" to keep people away. But not even that restricted area could prepare Weyerhaeuser and the world for what would happen on May 18, 1980 at 8:32 a.m. It would be the largest volcanic blast witnessed by man.
Just like the swift moving Yacolt fire in 1902, the Mount St. Helens eruption unleashed a fury of nature. When the blast ended a couple of days later, President Jimmy Carter came to see it first hand and described the region as a desolate moonscape.
In the process, a pyroclastic surge consisting of rock fragments, highly charged gas and superheated steam shrunk the mountain by 1,300 feet. With hurricane force winds, it flattened and buried 150,000 acres of privately owned, state and federal forests. The eruption killed 57 people and the resulting wall of liquefied mud heading down the Toutle River’s north fork wiped out trees, homes, bridges and roads. It was an uncontrollable force of nature.
For example, Weyerhaeuser’s Camp Baker was among three company logging camps lost. Million of dollars in logging equipment, rendered into a tangled mess of metal and rubber, littered the mud-covered landscape. Bulldozers, logging towers and trucks in the blast zone became burned out hulls tossed around like miniature Tonka toys in a big sand box.
In the path, 68,000 acres—about 14 percent of the Weyerhaeuser timberland—was toppled as if someone dropped a giant box of stick matches over the ground.
Weyerhaeuser Launches Army of Salvage Loggers
Would these forestlands be productive again? Rich soils were buried under inert gray ash—two thirds of which is silica, the same substance used to make glass and which has no nutrient value. If reforestation was to occur, tree planters would have to dig down to the original soil—sometimes more than seven inches.
Dick Ford, Weyerhaeuser’s forester in charge of the Mount St. Helens lands at the time of the eruption, and company scientists recognized unless the company took quick action, insects and diseases would damage the fallen trees rendering them beyond milling. Unless 36,500 acres were salvaged, there would be no economic recovery and no opportunity to replant the forest.
When federal health and safety officials gave Weyerhaeuser the green light on September 15, more than 1,000 people went to work. During the summer, more than 600 truckloads of logs rolled off the mountain and down the road to Longview.
In November 1982, when the salvage operation concluded, 850 million board feet had been recovered—enough lumber to build 85,000 three-bedroom homes. By June 1987, 18.4 million trees were hand-planted on 45,000 acres.
Today, lush green stands of Douglas firs grow below 3,000 foot elevations and Noble firs punctuate the landscape at higher levels. Douglas fir trees stand 70-feet tall and are growing so densely that thinning is needed to ensure the heartiest have the sunlight, nutrients and space needed to grow to maturity.
To commemorate the 25th anniversary of the eruption, Weyerhaeuser has pledged $1 million from its foundation and in packages of lumber from Mount St. Helens to Habitat for Humanity. The donation will help build homes for families in 18 states and provinces in the United States and Canada.
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