Implications of management strategies and vegetation change in the Mount St. Helens blast zone

The 1980 eruptions of Mount St. Helens provided an excellent opportunity for scientists to investigate the recovery of vegetation communities following a major geologic disturbance. An important and often overlooked aspect in these studies is the human factor in recovery processes, and specifically, the different management approaches taken towards re-establishment of vegetation on lands under the control of various owners. This study examines vegetation changes throughout the 1980 blast zone using a time series of Landsat-derived Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) images and change detection methods to assess the changes over 25 years, from 1980 to 2005, as a function of human management combined with ecological factors. This long-term tracking of change indicates that differences in the speed of vegetation re-establishment and consequent rates of change substantially reflect human involvement and varying management strategies.