Mt. Fitzherbert

LONGVIEW, Wash. (AP) — Weyerhaeuser Co. has begun harvesting trees that were planted 25 years ago in the ashes of the Mount St. Helens blast zone.

In January, contract loggers began thinning stands of Douglas Fir from land that once looked like it might never produce another tree.

In the Green River Valley, near the outer fringe of the blast zone, there are now no obvious signs of the volcano's May 18, 1980, catastrophic eruption. The forest floor is shaded under a canopy of green. Ash that once blanketed the ground has long since mixed into the soil.