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As fires

across the west in what will likely be the worst year for wildland fires on record,

brave people face them head on to save our structures and our lives.

The fraternity of American firefighters has always been a boys club.

Today only about 4% are women and with wildland firefighters even more so. In the early 1980s one

woman was among the first to join the Arrowhead Interagency Hotshots, an elite

National Park Service crew stationed at Sequoia and Kings

Canyon National Parks in California.

I'm Jason Epperson and today on America's National Parks, Mary Quar, who defied gender stereotypes

to create new spaces for herself and for future generations of women and land management agencies. of Women's

The Text of today's episode comes from women's Voices, Women in the National Park Service Oral History Project,

and the audio comes from an oral history interview conducted

by Luann Jones and Leah Bear of the National Park Service Park History Program earlier

this year.

Mary Quar was born and raised in California. Her appreciation of nature stemmed from annual family camping trips to Yosemite National Park. During one hiking trip at

Yosemite at about the age of 10, Kaur spotted a solo female hiker and knew right

...