May 24, 2001
Contact:
Amy K. Hanson, WSU News Bureau, 360/546-9602, hanson@vancouver.wsu.edu
WSU Vancouver Offers Joint Course with Mount St. Helens Institute
VANCOUVER, Wash. — Washington State University Vancouver and the Mount St. Helens Institute are offering a summer course titled “Natural History of Mount St. Helens.”
By enrolling in at least three of the institute’s one-day field seminars, students can earn degree or continuing-education credit. WSU Vancouver assistant professor of biology John Bishop teaches three seminars on eruption impacts and biological recovery, including “A Biologist-Guided Exploration of Mudflows and Lava Flows on the South Side” July 1; “A Biologist-Guided Exploration of the Blast Zone Northeast of the Volcano” July 14 or 21; and “The Pumice Plains” July 22.
For more than a decade, Bishop has studied the recolonization of plant life on Mount St. Helens’ pumice plains located between the crater and Spirit Lake. Each summer he spends about a month on the mountain. Interested students in WSU Vancouver’s biology program can participate in the field research.
A list of field seminars is available on the institute’s Web site, www.mountsthelensinstitute.org. For more information on Bishop’s Mount St. Helens research, call 360/546-9612, e-mail bishop@vancouver.wsu.edu or visit www.vancouver.wsu.edu/fac/bishop/home-long.html.
