Author: tourist_yp6g7u

HAZEL GREEN, Ala. (AP) — 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 on-site fire academy is part of the 1890 Land Grant Institution Wildland Fire Consortium, a partnership between the U.S. Forest Service and a cluster of HBCUs comprised of Florida A&M University, Southern University in Louisiana, Tuskegee University and Alabama A&M University.

The recruitment effort comes as wildfire season around the U.S. grows due to climate change and minorities remain underrepresented in forestry and firefighting. The number of wildfires this year is below the 10-year average, but hot and dry conditions are raising the risk, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.

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.

The consortium is building on top of a decadeslong relationship between Alabama A&M and the Forest Service. A USDA Forest Service Center of Excellence in Forestry was created at the school in 1993 to prepare students for jobs with the agency.

The Bulldogs established a nationally accredited firefighting team in 2009 made of students, called the FireDawgs. When class isn’t in session, the FireDawgs are dispatched to wildfires or burn operations around the country.

The development programs that have come out of the Alabama-Forest Service collaboration are responsible for training two-thirds of Black foresters in the federal agency, said Love, who was in the first FireDawgs squad.

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%.

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%.

The dearth of applicants of color may partly be due to a lack of awareness. They are not often encouraged to consider firefighting by guidance counselors or recruiters, said Terry Baker, CEO of the Society of American Foresters and its first Black leader. There also is a misconception that working outdoors isn’t highly technical or doesn’t require skill, he said.

Once students decide to study forestry or related fields, retaining them becomes the next challenge. Love said the Forest Service and HBCUs ensure there are mentorships, scholarships and internships.

Bradley Massey, an Alabama A&M junior and president of the school’s forestry club, said the school sparked a passion he was missing. Massey said he was a student at Auburn University when he lost focus, working in retail back home in Huntsville before enrolling in Alabama A&M in 2021.

“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 (5 kilometers) in under 45 minutes while carrying a 45-pound (20-kilogram) 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.”

Baker, of the Society of American Foresters, said the need for more firefighters will only increase as wildfires intensify with worsening climate change and droughts.

“If we’re going to meet these challenges, we’re going to have to have everyone,” Baker said. “What does that mean to a profession that has been primarily white male?”

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.”

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Terry Tang, who reported from Phoenix, is a member of The Associated Press’ Race and Ethnicity team. Follow her on Twitter at https://twitter.com/ttangAP

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WANTAGH, N.Y. (AP) — Off the coast of Long Island, drones sweep over the ocean, patrolling the water for any danger that might lurk below the surface as beachgoers grow more vigilant because of a recent spate of shark encounters.

Over two days this week, five people reported being bitten by sharks at some of New York’s most popular beaches, leading to heightened surveillance of the area’s waters.

The sighting of a 10-foot (3-meter) shark on Thursday prompted officials to keep people out of the water at Robert Moses State Park, the same Long Island beach that delayed its opening July 4 after a drone spotted a group of 50 sand sharks off the coast.

“We are now more vigilant than ever,” said George Gorman, the state’s park director in Long Island. “We have drones in the sky that watch over the waters. We have lifeguards on WaveRunners that watch over the waters.”

Just a few years ago, encounters with sharks were rare. But more recently, reports of sharks biting people have increased. Last year, eight people reported being bitten by sharks swimming in the shallows off Long Island’s beaches.

“This year, we’ve already had five bites,” Gorman said, “and the season has kind of just begun.”

Even if the injuries have not been serious, he and others are concerned by the rise in shark sightings and encounters.

Cary Epstein, a lifeguard supervisor who pilots drones at Jones Beach, said the tiny battery-powered aircraft make three sweeps each day: once before opening, then sometime midday and a final round before the end of the day.

“Despite the nervousness over what’s going on right now in New York, people swim in the ocean every day, and they have for centuries,” he said. “But we do have to remember that we are cohabitating, and this is their house.”

Drones provide an additional vantage point unavailable to lifeguards on the beach, Epstein said as he demonstrated how he uses the drones to patrol the waters off Long Island.

As he operated one of the drones from the beach, he stared into a small box equipped with controls and a display screen. The craft lifted off, hovering over the sand until it hurled forward over the water and turned into a mere dot as it approached the horizon.

“When you’re up in an elevated lifeguard station or a lifeguard stand, you can see up and you can see out, but you can’t see straight down,” Epstein said. “When we do have sharks that are eating on these fish, it’s very, very clear to us. You could see it, no questions asked.”

But, he warned, “just because you don’t see something doesn’t mean it’s not there.”

Just two months ago, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced the addition of 10 drones to its squadron, bringing the total to 18 that can be used to monitor shark activity along her state’s beaches.

“With New Yorkers and visitors alike preparing to enjoy our beautiful Long Island beaches all summer long, their safety is our top priority,” Hochul said in May. “This year we are taking further action to protect beachgoers by increasing surveillance to monitor for shark activity near beaches off the South Shore.”

An increase in shark sightings might suggest a healthier ecosystem, some say. Cleaner waters allow the small fish that sharks feed on to flourish. More small fish swimming closer to shore means more sharks nipping at their tails.

Prior to 2022, New York had only recorded a dozen unprovoked bites. Over the last decade, there were just four people bitten by sharks, according to data compiled by the International Shark Attack File, which tracks shark attacks around the world.

Florida is usually the country’s leader in shark bites. There were 16 last year, which was twice as many as runner-up New York.

From his elevated perch on the sand at Jones Beach State Park on Thursday, lifeguard Carl Nowicki pointed his gaze out to sea, scanning the water for activity that might attract a hungry shark, such as large schools of bait fish.

“If a drone has spotted a shark, we won’t alert the patrons until they’re all out of the water because we don’t want them to freak out,” he said. “We’ll be very transparent once everyone’s on the sand. We don’t want to cause a panic at a beach.”

Mike Berchoff, who was enjoying the sun and water at Jones Beach, goes into the water more cautiously these days. He doesn’t want to be the next beachgoer to be bitten by a shark.

“I just go out up to my waist. That’s about it,” he said. “I don’t go all the way out there.”

He’s seen more drones taking off lately, which he said provides some reassurance that beachgoers would be alerted of danger.

The first known encounter of the summer happened Monday, when a 15-year old girl felt a bite on her leg while swimming. At a different beach soon after, another teen had to paddle back to shore after something began nibbling on his toes.

A day later, on the Fourth of July, two men reported bites possibly by sharks in two separate encounters 60 miles (97 kilometers) apart.

This is not the same kind of horror that terrorized the fictional East Coast town of Amity Island in the terrifying movie thriller “Jaws.”

For one thing, it’s unlikely the marine animals involved in recent encounters were the fear-inducing great white sharks that linger in deeper waters and are rarely seen close enough to shore to be of real concern.

About a dozen species of sharks swim off the coast of Long Island, none of them considered particularly ferocious, including the sand sharks that are more common in the area and grow to nearly 15 feet (4.6 meters). Their sharp, jagged teeth might cause a fright, but the giant fish are usually docile and typically avoid human contact. A nursery for juvenile sharks is known to exist off Fire Island.

Sand sharks are unlikely to attack humans unless provoked, according to shark biologists. If they do interact with swimmers, it’s usually unintentional.

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