Building Fire-Resilient Communities with Annie Schmidt

10/14/20 • 28 min

In this episode, we talk to Annie Schmidt, who works for the Fire Adapted Communities Learning Network. Through her position at the Fire Adapted network, Annie has committed herself to helping communities build their fire-resiliency and, quite literally, learn to better live with fire. Annie offers some great perspective on how and why fire prevention work should be prioritized just as much as fire suppression, while also providing a few suggestions for other people who want to improve fire resiliency in their communities. One of the most interesting parts of Annie’s work is her commitment to bringing different voices to the table and empowering people with a variety of backgrounds to take greater authority over their land. You can listen, subscribe or review Living With Fire on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Google Podcasts.

Previous Episode

Fire Ecology 101, with Dr. Susan Prichard

In this episode, I enlisted the help of Dr. Susan Prichard—who has a PhD in fire ecology—to share a few of the foundational ideas of fire science and how fire is fundamental to the landscapes in the Western US, specifically. She told me a bit about her ongoing research and projects, one of which models how fires would have burned and affected the landscape through the last century if they hadn’t been suppressed. Susan has also done extensive research on (and shared some insights on) how climate change influences fire and whether or not the high-severity fires we're seeing more of lately have any historical precedent in the US.

Next Episode

Restoring the Land, Restoring the People: Cultural Burning with Margo Robbins

The practice of cultural burning hinges on one critical truth: healthy land means healthy people. Margo Robbins, who is a Yurok tribal member, basket weaver and the executive director of the Cultural Fire Management Council, explains the importance of cultural burning on Yurok tribal lands—located in Northern California— as well as why she has a vested interest in reintegrating cultural burns on her ancestral lands. Listen in to learn more about indigenous burning, the ecological and cultural benefits of fire and how cultural burning has helped renew the art and practice of basket weaving for Margo and other members of the Yurok Tribe.