My North Cascades Story - Life on Fire

Life on Fire
By Annie Schmidt
Director, Chumstick Wildfire Stewardship Coalition

I was just a girl when I stood on my front lawn watching the 1994 fires roar out of Tumwater Canyon, altering both the landscape and my life.  I had never seen anything so powerful, so raw, or so terribly fascinating.  Prior to that, I naively believed that the mountains surrounding my home were unassailable.  The tree-covered mountains had always been there and I assumed they would never change.

Work for the Forest Service, fighting a fire or two, continuing education and the desire to raise my family the way I had been raised led me back to the beautiful North Cascades.  Now, as Director of the Chumstick Wildfire Stewardship Coalition, I work to restore forests to their natural, fire-resilient condition.  It has been almost 20 years since fire changed my life.  I hope to spend the next 20 years hiking with my family through our fire-prone forests and marveling at their strength and resilience.