In the Blast Zone: Catastrophe and Renewal on Mount St. Helens by Charles Goodrich, Kathleen Dean Moore, Frederick J. Swanson

Abstract

Brophy: a broad PacificNorthwest beach and an endless sea subsume a band of Indianswho are slaughteringawhale, allwhile a two-masted American vessel and a steamship loom in the background, auguring inevitableeconomic and cultural transformations. William Lang argues in "An Insatiable Hunger: The Consuming Myth of theNorth west" thatBrophy's paintings forceus toboth stand in awe of the abundance of the region and to de-mythologize it and acknowledge the impact of human capriciousness. "Wealth came from the guts of the earth,"hewrites? an unsustainable situation that irrevocably changed the land (p. 46). But Lang also tells us thatwhat Northwesterners do most now is consume,not produce, which isfittingbecause they now must confront the consequences of theirdesires. Brophy, too, sees thisparadoxical situation as itunfolds and presents ittous on a canvas inprovocative and intriguingfashion. Andrew P. Duffin Western Kentucky University in scientificunderstanding. Yet what can we learn of thehuman dimension? thepsycho logical, social, and philosophical relationships between people and landscapes experiencing violent natural disturbances? This is theques tion explored by the collected essays of In the Blast Zone. The book emerged from a 2005 camping tripon theflanks ofMount St.Helens, coor dinated by Oregon State University's Spring Creek Project for Ideas,Nature, and the Writ ten Word. The tripbrought together a diverse collection of scientists, philosophers, poets, natural historians, and novelists to explore the blast zone and reflecton theirobservations of, and reactions to,thedramatically changed and recovering landscape. The participants,which included over twentyprominent writers and scientists,thencomposed brief essaysor poems now collected in thebook. A key theme is exploring themeaning behind words such as disaster, recovery, catastrophe, renewal, and destruction. Ques tions raised by the authors include: What significance do such terms carry in an ever changing landscape? In an ecosystem thatnot only responds to,but inmany ways thrives upon, violent change? Are these termspurely human constructs,and ifso,what does thistell us about ourselves?Many differentresponses to these questions are offered in the book. The authors' observations of the blast zone, for example, show that natural ecosystems are surprisingly resilient towhat we consider to be cataclysm and that the post-eruption ecosystem is equally, or even more, diverse and productive as theforestitsupplanted. Kathleen Dean Moore reflects, "Here on the volcano, I no longer understand the differencebetween destruction and creation" (p. 25). The essays offer impressive depth given their brevity. They go beyond the relatively simple ? but powerful ? story of natural resilience, exploring the volcano's effecton notions of human attachment to landscape, perceptions of lifeand death, how we relate to IN THE BLASTZONE: CATASTROPHE AND RENEWAL ON MOUNT ST.HELENS editedbyCharlesGoodrich,KathleenDean Moore, and Frederick J.Swanson Oregon State University Press, Corvallis, 2008. Illustrations, maps, bibliography. 128pages. $15.95 paper. The 1980 eruption ofMount St.Helens made international headlines for its violence, its stark transformation of a forest landscape, and itsdirect impact on human life, A historic event such as this is rare in a human lifetime ? rare even among generations ? and may profoundly impactour thinkingabout natural processes and the landscape inwhich we live. The volcano's blast zone has been a vast natural laboratory forscientistsstudying the workings of an ecosystem seemingly resetto"zero;" these studies have led to paradigm-busting leaps Reviews 633 theecosystems onwhich we depend, and ulti mately our place in theuniverse. The descrip tivewritings reflect the conflicting thoughts one must disentangle when experiencing the blast zone, from "returning to a bombed-out house," to "a landscape of great complexity and richness ... with extraordinary levels of biological diversity" (Christine Colasurdo, p. 78; Jerry Franklin p. 67). For thisreason, Iwas compelled to put the book down after each chapter toallowmyself time toabsorb the ideas contained within. Even though the smooth prose lends to a fast read, one would do well to read thisbook inpieces. It should be noted that this isnot a book providing a detailed blow-by-blow account of the eruption itself,save for a short primer in the introduction.Readers seeking information (_j?veyour special event a place in history at the Oregon jjistorica! CJodetul 3 Located in the heart of Portland's cultural district, the Oregon Historical Society offers two indoor and two outdoor venues capable of accommodating a varietyof special events. The...