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2 • JUNE 2020 - Senior Voice of Citrus County
F lo r a l C i t y w o m a n ’s li f e p a t h s h a v e le d
f r o m f i g h t i n g w i ld e r n e s s f i r e s t o b l a z i n g
n e w g a r d e n p a t h s
By Megan Carella lines with shovels,” she said.
“We fought fire mostly by
Winnie Schreiber has hand.”
witnessed firsthand just about
every cycle of nature – from After two years with that
hurricanes to blizzards, from crew, Winnie became part
the destruction of fire to of an interagency “hot shot”
lush growth. Throughout her crew, 20 people who traveled
journey she broke barriers – around the country fighting
as one of the country’s first larger fires. This was a more
female wildland firefighters, intense, more physically
and as Florida’s first female demanding, and more
Forest Management Bureau dangerous job.
Chief. She’s served her “One time three of us were
community through volunteer Pictured here in 1979, Winnie (first row, third from right) and dropped by helicopter into
work, and no matter where she her fellow firefighters would helicopter and hike into remote a national wilderness area in
lived – relished making things Montana forests to fight wildfires. (Photo courtesy of Winnie Schreiber) Montana where a fire had been
grow.
the west in a VW camper van,” for their wildland firefighting burning for weeks,” she said.
The 64-year-old Pensacola she said. “It was the early program, invited her to apply. “We usually didn’t fight fires
native lives with her husband, ‘70s, and there weren’t a lot in those remote areas; we’d
Steve Cox, 71, in a Floral of campgrounds back then, so “When I started with the just let them do what they
City home surrounded by we’d just camp wherever we conservation corps, I learned want to do. But this one was
stunning gardens they’ve stopped. The northwest was that, if you work for any coming close to a populated
worked painstakingly to wide open. It was a fabulous government natural resources area.
grow and maintain. There, experience.” agency, you will be involved “We had hiked in,” she
among an arbor, pond, gazebo, with fire as a management recalled. “We were going to
greenhouse, and plants of She attended college at the tool or suppression,” she do some hand work digging
every kind, Winnie reflected University of Idaho, majoring said. “When I was offered fire lines and were just talking
on the paths of her career and in botany and forestry. But, the firefighting job, I thought about where to start when the
life in retirement. after one year, she realized she it seemed like a challenge,
wanted something different. something different.” darn thing blew up right in
“I’ve always been fascinated front of us.”
by plants, their diversity, what “College wasn’t right for me at For her first two years, Winnie Winnie and her team ran
they do and how they are,” she that point,” she said. was part of a team that fought to a ravine and got in the
said. “My dad liked plants and That decision set her on a small fires. Since firefighting water. “That’s where we
outdoors, and he taught me career trajectory she never in the northwest isn’t a year- stayed. The agency started
from the time I was a child.” could have imagined. round job, she worked odd pouring resources in, and we
Winnie’s parents also She joined a year-long federal jobs and took courses at the managed to establish a spot for
University of Montana during
introduced her to the U.S. government “Young Adult the off seasons. She also had helicopters to land. We got out
northwest, a part of the Conservation Corps” program, to keep in shape for her very after that and, fortunately, it
country she fell in love with as working on range land in physical job. didn’t blow into the populated
a high school student. Montana. Then, the U.S. area.”
“My dad would take time off Forest Service, which was “We ran chain saws and
pumps, drove trucks, dug fire
each summer, and we traveled trying to recruit more women Continued on page 3
