Lacey England - Challenging Stereotypes and Protecting the Outdoors as a Wildland Firefighter

Lacey’s Wild Idea: To protect the environment by fighting fires in the wild.

I’ve always been interested in people with careers that allow them to spend time outside and contribute to the greater good. That’s how I found out about wildland firefighter Lacey England. REI recently made a video called “Women in Fire” that features Lacey and some other badass female firefighters and launches April 30th. Lacey was also profiled in the National Forest Foundation series, “Drawn to Flame: Women Forged by Fire.”

Fighting wild fires is a career I never heard much about as a kid, so I was fascinated by how Lacey got into it. She shared her story, plus the unglamorous life of her job (it involves Spam and carrying insanely heavy packs), what her day-to-day training entails, and what it’s like to be in a field that is dominated by people that don’t look like her. Plus, she tells us why she’s passionate about inspiring the next generation of young women to pursue careers that may fall outside the norm.

Listen to this episode if:

• You want to protect the environment.
• You’ve ever thought about being a firefighter.
• You want to be incredibly strong. Like Hulk strong.
• You’re a woman in a male-dominated field.
• You like being alone in the outdoors.

For full show notes, including guest links and books mentioned during the episode, visit: http://wildideasworthliving.com/71