Mount St. Helens and the Gifford Pinchot National Forest received $6.2 million in stimulus funds Tuesday, U.S. Rep. Brian Baird announced.

The money, the bulk of which goes directly to the 110,000-acre Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument, is for repairs and updates to the monument. The monument will receive $4.5 million for upgrades; the surrounding forest will receive $1.78 million for recreation facilities. The local dollars are part of $274 million in federal stimulus money awarded to national forests.

“Anyone who’s been to Mount St. Helens recently knows that many of the facilities and trails there are in need of a face-lift,” Baird said in a press release. “This money will not only create jobs but also ensure the monument and the Gifford Pinchot National Forest are able to adequately handle the thousands of tourists and scientists who visit the area each year.”

Cowlitz County Commissioner Axel Swanson called the announcement “great news for the county, the community and the region.”

Swanson was one of three co-chairmen of the Congressional Mount St. Helens Advisory Committee, which recently finalized suggestions for the future of the volcano. They’ll present the findings to lawmakers next month, including asking for National Park-like funding while keeping the volcano under U.S. Forest Service management.

Tuesday’s stimulus funding announcement doesn’t cover everything proposed by the committee but is a good start and shows that the volcano and its needs are being noticed, Swanson said.

Throughout the nearly two years the committee studied the monument there were frequent comparisons to The Lassen Volcanic National Park in California and its $4.2 million annual budget, compared to the monument’s $500,000 in direct funding. The stimulus money levels the playing field — for one year at least.

“This puts us almost up there where we’d like to be,” Swanson said. “This is what we’d like for Mount St. Helens on an annual basis, and the most important key is working with the Forest Service and watching how the money is spent and proving we can handle this kind of money and make wise decisions.”

Not all of the projects are specified at this point, but Swanson said he sees echoes of the committee’s recommendations in the allocation.

“I’ve got to believe the work the committee did and all the thousands of comments we received had an influence,” Swanson said.

Baird’s press release, for example, says some of the $4.5 million for the monument will be used to upgrade the power system at the Johnston Ridge Observatory and provide direct power to vendors there. The committee talked at length about improving the private power lines both at the observatory and along Spirit Lake Memorial Highway and bringing them up to PUD standards for a possible absorption into the Cowlitz PUD system.

“Maybe this is a critical point and time where the Forest Service now has some money to do that,” Swanson said.

In addition to the power upgrade, the $4.5 million for the monument will be used for repairs to the monument headquarters near Amboy, road repairs to Forest Service roads around and leading to the monument, and updating audio/visual equipment at the Johnston Ridge Observatory. Some of the money also will go to replacing windows at the Coldwater Ridge Visitor Center, which the Forest Service closed in 2007 citing expensive repairs and operating costs. Supporting information about the stimulus money makes no mention of reopening the center, though Swanson’s committee recommended it be turned into an overnight venue.

The $1.78 million going to the forest is to replace a boat ramp at Goose Lake, improve infrastructure at the Johnston Ridge Observatory and maintenance on Pine Creek Information Center buildings.

In addition to Tuesday’s announcement, the Forest Service announced during a Mount St. Helens committee meeting in November that it was pledging $1.2 million toward renovations and improvements to the monument. That work is scheduled for 2010.

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$1.2 million in upgrades planned for Mount St. Helens  (July 17)

Mount St. Helens panel to recommend High Lakes land swap, Forest Service management  (May 14)