Snowbrush covers the forest floor along the Chewuch River. The Chewuch River runs high with spring snowmelt as it plunges from the Pasayten Wilderness in the Snowbrush, Ceanothus velutinus, carpets the forest floor in an old forest fire burn area along the Chewuch River in Washington State. Snowbrush's spicey scent infuses the forest in areas once subject to fire, which is required to germinate the seeds. The Chewuch drains from North Cascade Mountains Pasayten Wilderness toward the Methow River at the village of Winthrop, where the two merge to drain throught the Methow Valley to the mighty Columbia at Lake Pateros.