Word: ashli
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...seven years since Mount St. Helens exploded in a spume of gas, ash and pumice, there have been 24 additional eruptions at the volatile peak in the Cascade Range. The last, a small explosive belch of magma that added 85 ft. to the height of the lava dome inside the crater, occurred eight months ago. As a result, the U.S. Forest Service, cautious guardian of the 110,000-acre Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument, has decided to let the general public have a closer look at a postvolcanic environment. Since early May, some 100 climbers a day have been...
That progress encompasses both flora and fauna. Inside the boundaries of the monument, where by law people are not allowed to assist regeneration, a mammalian equivalent of the bulldozer has been the pocket gopher. Colonies of these tiny industrious burrowers have helped mix the nutrient-poor ash and pumice with rich, pre-eruptive soil, creating a more hospitable turf for windblown seeds. Deer mice, ants and beetles have also assisted in the regeneration of the soil. Flowering lupine, with root nodules that convert nitrogen into compounds necessary for plant growth, has seized a foothold on the pumice plain, along with...
Farther from the epicenter, in hummocky fields of loose volcanic ash and fine pumice pebbles, willows, red alder and an occasional Douglas fir have taken root near small ponds. At the waters' edge, Pacific tree frogs and salamanders now flourish. Large bodies of water like Spirit Lake, which was filled with organic debris and robbed of its oxygen by accompanying bacteria during the eruption, have made even more rapid recoveries. Algae, zooplankton and freshwater crustaceans have all recolonized the lake, prompting authorities from the state department of game to push for the restocking of such game fish as rainbow...
...Reagan Administration inherited the two-track decision. Some key officials would have preferred to dump it onto the ash heap of history. Assistant Secretary of Defense Richard Perle, the leading hard-liner, failed to prevent the Administration from accepting the two-track policy, but he won the next battle: the U.S. proposed that if the Soviets eliminated all their SS-20s, NATO would not just restrict its prospective deployment but cancel it altogether. The simplicity and boldness of the scheme appealed to Reagan, and it had the advantage of seeming to give some of the noisier Europeans what they wanted...
...trouper it was a masterly performance. Speaking to the nation on Ash Wednesday in perhaps the most important address of his long political career, Ronald Reagan was simultaneously repentant yet still proud, regretful yet determined. He unflinchingly accepted responsibility for the Iran-contra scandal that has threatened his presidency. But while admitting that his overture to Iran quickly turned into an arms-for-hostages swap because he was so deeply concerned about the hostages' well-being, the President refused to % disavow the initiative as wrongheaded from the start...