Before starting college, Taylor Mohead had never been outside her hometown of Houston, Texas. Now, the recent Tuskegee University graduate is trekking around trees in Hazel Green, Alabama, in fire gear and sweltering heat.
The U.S. Forest Service intern is among 20 students from historically Black colleges or universities who are participating in a prescribed burn demonstration under instructors’ supervision. They clear paths, light fires and make sure the embers are out when they’re done. It’s part of an apprenticeship program that will give them the credentials to hit the ground running toward a fire line.
It’s a grueling way to spend summer break, but Mohead is relishing it. She never pictured herself fighting forest fires.
“Look at me. I’m really small. I’m really short. And then being a woman of color, that’s something, too. I feel like that’s more inspiring,” Mohead said, grinning. “I got goosebumps right now.”
The idea for a consortium came during the pandemic to address a “mission critical area of the Forest Service,” said Stephanie Love, the USDA Forest Service’s national diversity student programs manager and an Alabama A&M alum. The initiative became official in 2021.
“These four HBCUs have some of the top agricultural programs at HBCUs in the nation. So, it just makes sense to align our efforts and move together in the same direction,” Love said. “We’re trying to create a pipeline of students who are pursuing this natural resources education and forestry and fire.”
The hope is every student comes away with a foundation to chart one of many possible paths in forestry, ecology, agriculture or firefighting.
Diversity among the Forest Service’s wildland firefighters has increased by 20% in the last decade, according to data collected by the agency. It has approximately 13,000 employees including firefighters and other staff who respond to wildfires. Between July 2010 and July 2022, white staffers fell from 86% to 66%.
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Black fire personnel have remained mostly around 1.3%. Black women make up around half a percent. The number of Hispanic staff has grown by 10%. Native Americans/Alaska Natives and Asians linger around 3% and 1%, respectively. Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders make up less than 1%.
“As the school year progressed, that’s when more information about the FireDawgs presented itself,” Massey said in between running around in fire gear. “I wanted to just have experience and be able to make the most out of my college experience because I wasn’t just going back for fun. I was going back for a purpose.”
He has since accomplished feats like passing several firefighter work capacity tests including walking 3 miles in under 45 minutes while carrying a 45-pound pack. In October, he traveled to a conference in Boise, Idaho, where he went on field trips and talked with fire professionals and students from around the nation.
“I didn’t want to leave,” Massey said. “It was like going into Comic-Con and seeing all the cool stuff and just wanting to take many pictures … I feel like it has helped me a lot in my career now.”
Black firefighters can feel intimidated and isolated in the field when they parachute into fires in predominately white communities or don’t have other crew members of color around them, Baker said. He recalled fire scenes where “people became comfortable enough to openly say I was the first Black person they’ve ever met in real life that they didn’t see on TV.”
The current crop of students says it has been reassuring to meet HBCU alumni who have gone on to become fire or forestry professionals, noting there is something special about being in the field surrounded by classmates turned crew who look like them.
“It makes you more willing to go out there,” Mohead said. “If you hit a road stop or obstacle, you have someone on your left who’s probably been through it.”
