Rapid Recovery

The morning of May 18, 1980 showed a beautiful wilderness at Mount St. Helens in Washington State. A few hours later, virtually everything was gone … buried under volcanic ash and mudflows. One area, called Pumice Plain, was buried under volcanic rock. Nothing could grow there … or so they thought!

A few years later, life returned. Small plants that got their nutrients from the air— instead of the soil—moved in. Gophers followed them, eating their seeds and mixing up the soil. Life was back!

So, it doesn’t take long for wildlife to recover from a catastrophe. After the global flood of Noah’s time, life would’ve also rebounded quickly.

Dig Deeper

• Lasting Lessons from Mount St. Helens
• Climate Change: the Watershed Issue for Two Davids