Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Fig. 2.1
Game management unit 524 (
blue line
) lies to the north and west of Mount St. Helens
in the southwestern portion of Washington State. A 1988 Landsat TM color composite scene
with the Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument indicated (
yellow line
). The approxi-
mate limits of the blast zone can be seen in the marked boundary distinguishing more dense green
vegetation from early successional stages. The western
1
/
4
of the study area was basically undam-
aged by the eruption as was a small portion in the northeastern region now contained inside the
monument
Habitat capability is often defined as the biological carrying capacity of a habitat
in the most extreme environmental conditions such as winter. While summer-fall
forage nutrition is critical to ungulate productivity (Cook et al.
2004
) this can
vary greatly through the season, and thus can require extensive sampling effort.
Consequently, estimates of winter forage biomass are often used as an indicator
