What I've Been Up To...

Since this is my first ever blog, I'm writing about what I've been up to. I graduated from Snow College and Utah State University with a bachelor's degree in Forest Management. I've been working for the U.S. Forest Service in the Western United States since then in Utah, Montana, Nevada, and now Wyoming. After jobs in wildliand firefighting, helitack, forest health monitoring, and trail crew, I settled down as an Environmental Coordinator for the Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest. It's one of those jobs no one knows how to explain, but basically means I do a lot of editing and writing of environmental documents and responding to appeals and litigation on projects that the Forest Service does to comply with the National Environmental Policy Act. I'm currently working on the Wild and Scenic Rivers EIS for the National Forests in Utah. It has been very interesting, but means I get to work in Salt Lake City most of the time.

I love my job with the Forest Service, but it does little for the creative side of my brain so I find myself writing books. This summer I met some literary agents at the Jackson Hole Writer's Conference and have started sending out queries to some of them. To see more about my writing, check out my website at http://www.amycbarker.com/.

In 1998, I got married to my fellow trail crew partner and wildland firefighter Walt. He fought fires for the past ten years and is currently in the process of a career change.