Mount St. Helens, the Pumice Plain, and Spirit Lake are special places Cascade Forest Conservancy has fought to protect since our founding. Now, we need your help speaking out to preserve the ongoing ecological recovery occurring here and the scientific insights this healing volcanic landscape is providing to us.
The Spirit Lake Outlet Tunnel
The eruption of 1980 created a debris flow that blocked the natural outlet of Spirit Lake. Scientists and engineers realized that with nowhere to go, Spirit Lake’s waters threatened to overflow and destabilize this earthen dam, potentially leading to a massive mudflow that could pose a serious danger to downstream communities.
For the safety of these communities, the US Army Corps of Engineers built an outflow tunnel to prevent the most unstable parts of the debris blockage from being breached. But the existing tunnel was never meant to last forever and it has reached the end of its life expectancy.
Between 2018 and early 2023, CFC fought specific elements of a project to temporarily repair the outlet tunnel’s gate. We took particular issue with the Forest Service’s plan to build a road across the Pumice Plain—a protected recovering ecosystem found nowhere else on Earth and the site of important ongoing research. We argued that the road (although temporary) would do long-term damage to an otherwise pristine natural laboratory, that the Forest Service had failed to adequately consider other ways to transport workers and materials to the job site, and that the plans provided by the agency did not adequately address the impacts of the road to watersheds and wildlife at the site. Although we lost that legal case, the story is not over. More decisions impacting the Pumice Plain, Spirit Lake, and Mount St. Helens are on the way.
Speak out for the ecological and scientific value of Mount St. Helens, the Pumice Plain, and Spirit Lake
Official planning for what to do long-term with Spirit Lake’s outlet is just beginning. The Forest Service has started a process that will inform how project planners will weigh different values further into the planning process.
We need people like you to speak up early in the planning process to advocate for a Spirit Lake outflow tunnel replacement project that keeps downstream communities safe WHILE ALSO preserving the ecological integrity and science happening in the Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument.
Your voice makes a difference! Take a moment to complete and return this attached survey by August 31st.
Download the survey as an interactive PDF HERE. E-mail your completed questionnaire to sm.fs.spiritlake@usda.gov no later than August 31, 2024.
Email ashley@cascadeforest.org with questions.
