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Local Motion: Colorado's First All-Female Wildland Fire Crew

Jodi Peterson

"Be a student of fire." That's just part of the advice that Colorado's first all-female wildland fire crew received at a training camp in late May. This summer, the women will work on conservation projects and help fight forest fires in the area around Grand Junction.  KVNF spoke to several of the crew members, their instructors, and a couple of longtime female firefighters.

Jodi Peterson grew up on Colorado’s Front Range and attended Colorado State University, earning a B.A. in English and an M.A. in communication development. She spent 16 years working as a technical communicator with computer company Hewlett-Packard, then made a career shift to journalism. In 2005, she became news editor for the award-winning nonprofit newsmagazine High Country News; later she served as its managing editor for five years. In 2017, she went part-time as a contributing editor. Jodi was hired as KVNF’s news director in April 2019, and shifted to the news editor role in November 2020, before going freelance in January 2021.