Spirit Lake Memorial Highway
Forest Learning Center, WA

The third visitor center along the highway, the Forest Learning Center, seeks to educate visitors about the amazing power of volcanoes, along with the reforestation and recovery of the area surrounding Mount St. Helens. Through a partnership between Weyerhaeuser Company, Washington State Department of Transportation, and the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, this fascinating center encourages a better understanding of the regeneration of Mount St. Helens' forest ecosystem.

Visitors are able to walk through a life-like forest and the eruption chamber, and take a short walk through the planted forest and learn about biodiversity, among other things. Information about the Weyerhaeuser Company -- who played a major part in the Mount St. Helens drama -- is also available. They salvaged 870 million board feet of timber after the eruption, a process that is explained at the center. This logging company has also planted numerous trees, which continue to grow along the highway.