Yeah, I bet Mt. St. Helens denuded the forests faster than their planning also. But the forests recovered just fine.
IIRC, Tom Brokaw was standing in front of the volcano promising America and the world that nothing would ever grow there again. What a twit.
I go there every year. To be truthful, the forests that have recovered were all replanted by Weyerhauser :~) The untouched part of the volcanic monument, left to recover as nature allowed, are largely still moonscape, or covered with scrub and alder.
What a stupid article. Forest fires have happened every year in the Western Mountains at least for the past 10,000 years (the last ice age).