Effects of forest land management on erosion and revegetation after the eruption of Mount St. Helens

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
The 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens covered soils with a tephra blanket and killed the forest tree cover in a 550 km2 area. After the eruption, rates of sheetwash and rill erosion, and plant cover were measured on tephra‐covered hillslopes which had been subject to three land‐management practices: grass seeding; scarification, and salvage logging. On rapidly‐eroding hillslopes subject to grass seeding, limited plant covers were established only after erosion had declined sharply. Logging of trees downed by the eruption and scarification of previously logged surfaces slowed erosion, although the effect was small because erosion rates had already slowed substantially by the time these two practices were implemented. The factors controlling erosion, revegetation, and their relative timing at Mount St. Helens are similar to those following explosive volcanic eruptions elsewhere, suggesting that grass seeding is not likely to be effective at slowing erosion following most tephra eruptions, and that early mechanical disturbance could be an effective erosion‐control measure. The results also indicate that even without deliberate conservation measures, processes which mechanically disturb a surface layer of low hydraulic conductivity (such as frost‐action or trampling) can radically reduce runoff and erosion before revegetation has an important effect.