Potential UVM students and their families spent the last few weeks visiting campus for Admitted Students Visit Days. Several years ago, Alannah Fleming '26 was one of those students, and a conversation she had that day changed the course of her life.

"I met with Tony (D'Amato) on my Admitted Students Day," Alannah recollected. She'd been considering a Wildlife and Fisheries Biology major and a forestry minor. "But the way he talked about forestry made me reconsider," she said. "I thought to myself, 'I could do a minor in wildlife bio.' I don't need to do a major. Forestry is awesome and I'd rather just do forestry." Now, as she prepares for graduation, Alannah has an exciting wildland firefighting job lined up in Montana, and four years of incredible experiences as a forestry student under her belt.

Alannah attended The Bridgeport Regional Aquaculture Science & Technology Education School, a specialized high school for marine sciences in Connecticut, and always assumed she would pursue an undergraduate degree in marine science or biotechnology. But after learning how much additional post-bac schooling she would need to pursue in order to do work that interested her, she began considering other options. 

The forestry program is famous for drawing in students from different disciplines who never dreamed they'd study forests. "I didn't know anything about trees," Alannah recalled, laughing. "I remember taking NR1010 and they gave us a tree quiz, and I freaked out because I didn't know any of them. How was I going to take dendrology? It was scary."

Alannah in the woods.

But Rubenstein School students know that comfort isn't where growth happens, and Alannah knows that better than most. She took the risk and majored in forestry despite being scared of the unknowns. Her studies turned her toward firefighting. When she was discussing her interest in firefighting with a friend, he told her it was too much hard work and that she wouldn't like it. "I told him, 'now you're making me curious. Now I want to do it even more.'" 

In the summer of 2023, Alannah headed off to Kalispell, Montana, where she worked as a Forestry Crew Member with the Montana Conservation Corps. She worked 50 hour weeks in and around Glacier National Park contributing to forestry operations like pre-commercial thinning and reforestation plot surveys.

Despite having limited past experience (and some misgivings about using one at all), she got familiar with chainsaws. Alannah had managed to dodge chainsaw use despite being a member of the Timbersports team. She went to two meetings during her freshman year, but didn't fully join until she was a sophomore, partly because of her disdain for the tool. "I told them, 'I don't want to do that, I never want to touch those, that's just not me, that's never going to be me,'" Alannah said. "And then I went out to Montana and they told me I was on the chainsaw crew." Alannah learned to use chainsaws safely and now feels comfortable with them, which served her well as she continued to work on forestry and wildland fire crews in Montana during her summers.

Alannah using a chainsaw at a Timbersports event.

Alannah returned to Montana in the summer of 2024 as a forestry technician with Ksanka Fire in Eureka, Montana. She was able to return to Montana thanks to connections that she made in the summer of 2023. "A supervisor of mine in 2023 offered to look over my resume and help me navigate USA Jobs," Alannah explained. "She was my reference, and that helped so much. I got lots of calls from other Montana fire crews because I had a local connection." 

Alannah began specializing in wildland firefighting that summer during 60 hour weeks on an engine crew and participating in initial attack operations and fireline construction and mop-up. The experience she gained over those two summers was on fire crews, meaning she was working on hands-on tasks like tree thinning when they weren't fighting active wildfires. This summer, she'll be working on a fuels crew, which is more research-focused. "At the beginning of the season, we'll be measuring the snowpack and the downed woody debris," Alannah said. These factors contribute to the severity of fire season.

Alannah in the woods in a helmet.

Feeling confident in her skills after a summer of hard work, Alannah worked as a teaching assistant for Professor Jess Wikle's Wildland Fire Course for several semesters. She also TA'ed for Professor Luben Dimov's Dendrology course, despite having been scared of the course as a first-year taking the tree quiz in NR1010. 

"It’s been awesome getting to know Alannah through classes and the Timbersports team these past few years," said Professor Wikle. "I really appreciate her enthusiasm for anything she’s working on, often taking the lead on seeking out opportunities for new experiences. It’s always exciting to see the Wildland Fire course as a jumping off point for students to get involved with working in the field, and it’s been fun to see Alannah gain experience in the summer and bring it back to the class as a TA each year. I was thrilled to hear that she’ll be headed back to Montana to work in fire after graduation."

Alannah in the mountains of Montana.

"Taking the wildland fire course was super helpful," Alannah said. "Especially as a woman in the field. I didn't have as much experience as some of the guys I worked with my first summer in Montana. They were welders and mechanics and could fix our tools and vehicles. That class gave me a baseline of what I was supposed to be doing, and made me feel much more confident."

Her confidence and foundation of knowledge will serve her well this summer as she heads out west again to work for the U.S. Forest Service Beartooth Ranger Station in Red Lodge, which oversees the Custer Gallatin National Forest. Her technical title is wildland firefighter, but she'll be working in fuels management. It will be an incredible opportunity for Alannah to continue building her skills, and her fearlessness in the face of new experiences is a testament to her can-do attitude and grit.

Alannah and her colleagues standing in front of the Montana mountains at sunset.

Her advice for other students who want to make the most of their time at Rubenstein is simple: "you have to make community," Alannah said. "It's helped me so much. My forestry friends and I send each other job openings, rather than competing for them." 

Alannah also built camaraderie outside of the classroom on the Timbersports Team and on the Forestry Quiz Bowl Team, of which Alannah was a member of UVM's Society of American Forester's Annual Quiz Bowl Championship winning team this past fall. "I told myself, 'I'm going to do timber sports. I'm going to get involved in forestry club. I'm going to get involved in snowboard team,' and I met a lot of great people."

Alannah and the Timbersports team.

Looking back on her experience at UVM in the final weeks of senior year, several memories stuck out to her as especially emblematic of her time in the forestry program and of her journey of self-discovery and growth. 

All forestry students take a summer class lovingly nicknamed "Forestry Summer Camp." Alannah's class was standing in a bog examining the tree and plant life around them. "We had a measuring tool, basically a big stick, to measure the depth of things," Alannah said. "We put it in the ground and it just kept going and going. We were standing on this ground in the bog, and it was almost like quicksand--it was up around my ankles." Asked if she was scared, Alannah, in typical fashion, responded, "No, I was amazed."

Forestry summer camp was a great opportunity for Alannah to develop closer to many of the people in her major. "You spend so much time in classes with the same people, and then having everyone together for three weeks in the summer really builds a sense of community," Alannah reflected. "We’d have potlucks throughout the summer, and it helped establish the amazing community within the major." 

Her favorite memory of her time at UVM happened while she was TA'ing for Dendrology during a lab at Lincoln Gap in Addison County, about an hour south of campus. "It’s one of the best labs because we go to Sunset Ledge during peak fall foliage," Alannah explained. 

"I taught that lab with my good friends Carmen McFadden and Amelia Weeden, and we were out on the lookout, taking group pictures and enjoying the perfect weather. Suddenly, we heard rustling in the woods, and Mary Roth and Teresa Helms, forestry alums who had graduated in the past few years, appeared out of nowhere. They were backpacking the Long Trail, and we just happened to be in the same place at the same time. It was wild because Mary was my TA when I took dendrology, and Teresa is a good friend and also a Timbersports alum. It was such a fun coincidence, and it really sums up what makes the forestry department special."

Alannah and her friends standing on Lincoln Gap

all images courtesy of Alannah Fleming