JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
Climate change is putting a growing number of people at risk of wildfire in the Great Plains and the Western U.S. The number of firefighters and fire management professionals has not kept up with that demand. Now a firefighter-in-training program designed primarily for women hopes to fix that by diversifying the industry and attracting more people to firefighting jobs. Nebraska Public Media's Brian Beach traveled to the Sandhills of Nebraska and has this report.
(SOUNDBITE OF FIRE CRACKLING)
BRIAN BEACH, BYLINE: On a cool, overcast morning in Northern Nebraska, a small section of the vast prairie is burning. Today the fire is intentional.
JENNIFER MUELLER: Yeah. If you get light fuels on the edge there, feel free to sling it in.
BEACH: A group of several dozen people, mostly women, dressed in bright yellow jackets and dark green pants carry out this prescribed burn, armed with drip torches and water tanks.
MUELLER: Just kind of sling it in...
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: Yeah.
MUELLER: ...To grab these heavier fuels.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: OK.
MUELLER: You get real light at the edge.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: Yeah. (Inaudible).
MUELLER: Sling it in there. Yeah. Awesome.
BEACH: The procedure is called blacklining. The edge of a plot of land is burned and subsequently turned black to make it easier to burn the entire field later. But changing weather conditions means the time for this training session is limited.
MUELLER: We got a pretty good window until 1800, but I think we're going to shoot for 1700 just to give ourselves some buffer.
BEACH: Nebraska's Sandhills region is the perfect place for a prescribed burn. The area has 40 times more cows than people, and the treeless terrain stretches on for miles, interrupted only by the occasional windmill. It's here where the Women in Prescribed Fire Training Exchange, better known as W-TREX, has chosen to hold its annual event. Jennifer Mueller is training to be a burn boss. So, like a student teacher, she points out details and asks the group questions.
MUELLER: What's our fire behavior triangle again?
UNIDENTIFIED GROUP: Fuels, weather, topography.
MUELLER: Yeah. Fuels, weather, topography determines fire behavior. Fire behavior determines...
UNIDENTIFIED GROUP: Tactics.
MUELLER: Tactics. Yes. Y'all are so sharp. Good.
BEACH: Prescribed burns are a fairly standard procedure across the Great Plains. Sarah McCaffrey, a former researcher with the U.S. Forest Service, says they serve to keep ecosystems healthy and stop the encroachment of trees onto the grasslands.
SARAH MCCAFFREY: The research that I've been involved in shows that when people understand the competence of the people, they are fine with prescribed fire as long as they want to know it's managed and that their concerns are being taken into account.
BEACH: Technical skills aren't the only thing being taught at this event. Lenya Quinn-Davidson, one of the founders of W-TREX, says it also serves as an opportunity for women in the fire industry to network with each other and experience firefighting in a space that's mostly female.
LENYA QUINN-DAVIDSON: It was really important for us to use W-TREX as a chance to provide leadership opportunities for women.
BEACH: Only about 9% of firefighters are women, according to data from the National Fire Protection Association. Quinn-Davidson says there are even fewer women in decision-making leadership roles. She hopes W-TREX's efforts to bring more people into firefighting will help meet a growing need.
QUINN-DAVIDSON: We can't find the people to do the jobs. So programs like W-TREX provide a critical linkage to workforce capacity and not only inspiring people to get involved in this work but then providing them the training opportunities so they can be competent.
BEACH: So in the evenings, W-TREX participants take part in workshops where they discuss topics like burnout among fire management professionals, the barriers that women in fire face and the differences in leadership styles between men and women.
(SOUNDBITE OF FIRE CRACKLING)
BEACH: But out in the field, it's all about keeping watch on the live fires. Burn boss trainee Mueller keeps an eye on the clock as the group works to improve the time it takes to move equipment to another section and begin a burn there.
MUELLER: That last one was awesome. It was, like, 13 minutes. We went from 50 to 13. So that's real-life, practical experience that you're going to be able to use later on.
BEACH: W-TREX leader Quinn-Davidson says that's evident in the results of the program so far. A quarter of people have found new employment opportunities in fire management, and more than half have advanced in their careers since the W-TREX focus on women began eight years ago. For NPR News, I'm Brian Beach in Brown County, Neb. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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