by Claire O'Neill

National Geographic

Diane Cook and Len Jenshel have made an appearance on the Picture Show before. They are two of today's most pre-eminent landscape photographers, working in black and white and color respectively — both using medium-format film. And this month their work has made another appearance in National Geographic magazine. Today marks the 30th anniversary of the eruption of Mount St. Helens; their photographs show the new life that sprang from destruction.

  • Mount St. Helens erupts on the morning of May 18, 1980. Thirty years later, the site is now home to new life.
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    Mount St. Helens erupts on the morning of May 18, 1980. Thirty years later, the site is now home to new life.
    Roger Werth, Daily News/National Geographic
  • Flanked by Mount Adams (far left) and Mount Hood, Mount St. Helens is settling back into the volcanic landscape. The mountain's eruption killed 57 people and destroyed more than 200 square miles of forest.
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    Flanked by Mount Adams (far left) and Mount Hood, Mount St. Helens is settling back into the volcanic landscape. The mountain's eruption killed 57 people and destroyed more than 200 square miles of forest.
    Diane Cook and Len Jenshel/National Geographic
  • Ashy sediment clogs the valley bottom along the North Folk Toutle River. Before 1980, the river carried 500 times more sediment than it does now.
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    Ashy sediment clogs the valley bottom along the North Folk Toutle River. Before 1980, the river carried 500 times more sediment than it does now.
    Diane Cook and Len Jenshel/National Geographic
  • Wildlife blooms on a hill near the volcanic monument's Coldwater Lake.
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    Wildlife blooms on a hill near the volcanic monument's Coldwater Lake.
    Diane Cook and Len Jenshel/National Geographic
  • A stand of trees lies eight miles from St. Helens.
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    A stand of trees lies eight miles from St. Helens.
    Diane Cook and Len Jenshel/National Geographic
  • Thousands of dead trees still float on Spirit Lake. Although the lake was toxic immediately after the eruption, it is now richer than ever — full of aquatic life and enormous rainbow trout.
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    Thousands of dead trees still float on Spirit Lake. Although the lake was toxic immediately after the eruption, it is now richer than ever — full of aquatic life and enormous rainbow trout.
    Diane Cook and Len Jenshel/National Geographic

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Cook and Jenshel actually met in 1979, a year before the volcano exploded, and have been working together ever since. For the most part, they have focused their lenses on the environmental landscape and the ways in which man interacts with it. This story, though, is less about human influence and more about what happens to a place when it's left alone.

The destroyed site around Mount St. Helens was declared a monument and virtually closed to the public for the past three decades. And some interesting ecological developments came of it: Life not only returned but also exploded, new forms of flora and fauna flourished, and rainbow trout somehow returned to waters — and grew in size.

It's been a private playground for scientific research, although today there is debate about opening the region as a national park. Regardless of what's in store for the region's future, its post-eruption story is full of ecological anomaly. Cook and Jenshel's photos preserve this brief moment in the history of an ancient and ever-changing landscape.