Wildland firefighting is a heavily male-dominated field, and federal agencies acknowledge the gender imbalance.
But the numbers are striking: In fiscal year 2021, 84% of federal firefighters were men. Lack of diversity has been identified as a part of wildland firefighting’s larger recruitment and retention issue, according to a 2022 Government Accountability Office report.
“The homogenous makeup of the firefighting workforce, along with the nature of the work, has sometimes made it difficult for women and underrepresented racial and ethnic groups to feel accepted as part of the firefighting workforce,” the report said. “In addition, some women firefighters have experienced sexual harassment, according to Forest Service and Interior officials and eight stakeholders.”
The South Carolina-based Table Rock Fire Crew -- a collaboration between the U.S. Forest Service and the Student Conservation Association -- is one effort to address the problem.
Liz Skelly will be acting captain for the upcoming season, the crew’s second. She’s heard encouraging things from women who were on the crew this year.
“They would not have gotten into fire were it not for a program like this, simply because it does feel a little intimidating, right?” she said.
This year, the crew mostly did prescribed burn and prep work in the southeast. But next season the roughly 10-member crew will be available nationally for suppression work when the West starts to burn.
“Anybody who can do this work should be able to do this work,” Skelly said, adding that giving women a positive experience out of the gates could help attract and retain them.
“When you're managing risk, you need to be able to look at things from a lot of different perspectives,” she said of the benefits of a more diverse wildfire workforce. “A hammer and a nail is not always the right answer.”
This story was produced by the Mountain West News Bureau, a collaboration between Wyoming Public Media, Nevada Public Radio, Boise State Public Radio in Idaho, KUNR in Nevada, KUNC in Colorado and KANW in New Mexico, with support from affiliate stations across the region. Funding for the Mountain West News Bureau is provided in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.