When Linda Wadleigh was a forestry major at Utah State University she came upon her first summer job as a firefighter, a role that led to a 30-year career in wildland fire management with the U.S. Forest Service.

After years in the field, she and a handful of other women firefighters decided to create a boot camp to recruit and prepare other women to become firefighters through hands-on training and classroom learning opportunities.

“I didn’t see many other women, and I just wanted them to have the same chance that I did, to see what a great career this is,” Wadleigh said.

The Women in Wildfire Boot Camp program was established in 2011 and continued for more than a decade before it was terminated in February because of President Donald Trump’s executive order banning diversity, equity a

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