Steve Olson > Quotes

“Natural disasters are revelatory. The manner in which a society interprets a catastrophe and responds to the chaos exposes many of the accepted truths, prejudices, hopes, and fears of a culture. —Nicholas Shrady, The Last Day”
― Steve Olson, Eruption: The Untold Story of Mount St. Helens

“Where the downed trees were removed from the monument, biological diversity is relatively impoverished. But where the trees were left to rot and revert to soil, seeds could take root and plants and animals could flourish. Many of the species that occupied these devastated areas were new to the region—western meadowlarks, spiders found previously in the deserts of eastern Washington, knapweed, stem-boring beetles. Today the area surrounding Mount St. Helens has much more biological diversity than it did before the eruption. For that reason, ecologists prefer to call the reestablishment of life around the volcano a renewal rather than a recovery.”
― Steve Olson, Eruption: The Untold Story of Mount St. Helens

“at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.”
― Steve Olson, Eruption: The Untold Story of Mount St. Helens

“The habitats that have recovered fastest are those that were left in disarray.”
― Steve Olson, Eruption: The Untold Story of Mount St. Helens

“Sometimes a Great Notion.”
― Steve Olson, Eruption: The Untold Story of Mount St. Helens

“What Wallace Stegner said of the national parks applied to the forest reserves as well: They were “the best idea we ever had. Absolutely American, absolutely democratic, they reflect us at our best rather than our worst. Without them, millions of American lives, including mine, would have been poorer.”
― Steve Olson, Eruption: The Untold Story of Mount St. Helens