Volcanic Eruptions. How to replace trees?

Question

While not relating to any other Volcanic Eruptions, confine your answers to Mt. St. Helen's eruption in 1980.
Millions of trees were destroyed. There were/are few roads suitable for vehicles and after the eruption, most were no doubt impassable.
How did the Forestry Service manage to re-plant all or most, of those trees?

YES,YES, they did. The Forestry did re-plant trees.
I think every one may be interested in the method used. There are somewhere in the neighborhood of a million hikers on Mt St. Helen in any given year.
Knowing this, some one or a few men in the Forestry Service came up with the solution.

The tree saplings are very small, but as noted, with so many numbers involved, no vehicle could do the job. They did not have enough men who could physically carry them up the mountain.
They asked hikers to the mountain to carry as many saplings as they could handle, up the mountain with instructions to each, a place to drop them off. The spots were varied enough and some high enough that Forestry workers were able to hike and plant those saplings.
I only learned this by a visit, some years ago.

Answer 1

They did not. At least not millions. Volcanic ash is very rich in nutrients--so after it cooled down, trees sprounted through seeds and root systems that were not destroyed, and rejuvenated. This happens all the time--one of the reasons the big island of Hawaii an active volcanic site--is so fertile.

Answer 2

What they learned is that you don't really need to do anything. Nature has a way of bouncing back on it's own. They predicted that nothing would grow for decades, but plants and trees began growing back on their own within a few years.

Answer 3

maybe they didn't plant baby trees....maybe they dropped a lot of seeds and some fertilizer and they did it on their own.

Answer 4

dont worry nature will heal itself