Trailblazers Academy
Despite women making up only 10% of the national wildland fire workforce, and a mere 4% in leadership roles, change is on the horizon. The Nature Conservancy’s Trailblazers Academy is addressing this disparity head-on.
This year, the cost-free, three-day workshop dedicated to empowering female fire practitioners returned to Camp Joy Hollow. It provided a unique opportunity for these women to learn and grow in their field.
Iowa, predominantly a grassland state, is often referred to as a prairie state. Historically, prairies maintained their health through three main factors: disturbances from grazers like bison or insects, weather, and fire—often ignited by lightning strikes or Indigenous peoples. However, the vast "seas of grass" that explorers Lewis and Clark once marveled at have significantly changed.
"Land is parceled up, whether it’s privately owned, publicly owned, or a private entity like a nonprofit who has it open for public access," said Amy Crouch, Little Sioux Project director for The Nature Conservancy and Trailblazer Academy Incident Commander. "[The land] no longer receives that lightning strike fire, at least not on a regular basis. And if it does, it’s generally put out pretty quickly because there’s so much human-built infrastructure that we have to worry about."
Controlled burns have become essential in reintroducing fire to these ecosystems, promoting resilience, diversity, and balance.
"When Mother Nature is out of balance, it messes everything up," said Crouch. "Water quality gets bad. You don’t have birds."
As part of the workshop, participants collaborated on a controlled burn. Under the guidance of professional burn bosses, they had a safe space to apply their newly acquired skills, with burn boss trainees leading the exercise.
"I have not had a whole lot of female coworkers in my career, so it’s cool," said Maia Larson, a burn boss trainee who traveled from Arkansas for the workshop. "This is probably the most women I’ve been around in fire in my entire 10-year career."
Published with The Sioux City Journal.
