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Last Ditch Effort to Save an Ecosystem 40 Years Ago is A Shocking Success

Two decades ago, after an eruption, scientists dropped gophers on the side of the volcano, and in less than a day of digging, they achieved incredible benefits still seen today.

Katrina Paulson
7 min readDec 16, 2024
Mt St. Helens in 2012 — Image Source: Wikicommons

Climate change brings monumental destruction, but we’re learning so much about Nature because of it. After all, it’s easier to understand an ecosystem when a link in its chain breaks and we experience the fallout — whether species extinction or natural disasters. After gaining this knowledge, we often turn to technology to restore Nature and fix our mistakes. I’m all for using modern technology to aid in the climate crisis, but sometimes, there’s a far simpler solution.

Such is the case for today’s topic. After a devastating volcanic eruption over forty years ago, scientists decided to let nature heal Nature. The outcome of their unorthodox experiment far surpassed expectations and continues to astound scientists over two decades later — showing once again that Nature is the master scientist, and we have much to learn.

Forty Years Ago

To understand how awesome today’s topic is, we gotta go back to March 20, 1980, when a 4.1 magnitude earthquake…

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Katrina Paulson
Katrina Paulson

Written by Katrina Paulson

I write about recent discoveries that have the power to shift our perspectives. Check it out! --> https://curiousadventure.substack.com

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