Ecosystem disturbances: Some Uncommon Views

Disturbance events are frequent and essential components of forests and rivers of the Pacific Northwest. Reflections on the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens, the Forest Wars over old-growth, the 1996 flood, and the 2020 wildfires reveal common properties of these “big-change events.” They each created big change in our thinking and humans just don’t deal withchange well; disturbance science helps place abrupt, unexpected events in historical context; interesting discoveries (“aha moments”) can occur in the midst of the events themselves; and the resulting landscapes may be disheartening, fascinating, and even beautiful.