Photo: Alabama A&M University
Recent Tuskegee University graduate Taylor Mohead is among 20 students from Historically Black Colleges or Universities (HBCU) taking part in an apprenticeship that will let them hit the ground running toward a fire line. The on-site fire academy at Hazel Green, Alabama, is part of the 1890 Land Grant Institution Wildland Fire Consortium, a partnership between the U.S. Forest Service and HBCUs comprised of Florida A&M University, Southern University in Louisiana, Tuskegee University and Alabama A&M University. It builds on a relationship between Alabama A&M and the Forest Service that dates back to 1993. While diversity among wildland firefighters has increased by 20% in the last decade, Black fire personnel have remained mostly around 1.3%, possibly because they are not often encouraged to consider firefighting, said Terry Baker, CEO of the Society of American Foresters and its first Black leader.
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