“Can a woman fill the position of a man in the field of forestry?” This line opened the editor’s note on Margaret Stoughton Abell’s article, “A Glimpse of the Appalachian Forest Experiment Station,” in the Ames Forester in 1933. Margaret would go down in history as the first female forester in the U.S. Forest Service.
There is a first time for everything! Imagine where you would be today without those who paved the path before you? Whether it was the first female employed in your field of study, the first person of your citizenship background to attend a university in the U.S., or even the first person to prove to the academic world that your field was worthy of study, somebody came before you and created space for your future goals and aspirations.
I am constantly inspired by the forestry history of the women in this country. Let’s learn about the history of two women who earned the distinction of becoming: the first woman employed in forestry in the U.S., Caroline Dorman, and the first woman to work as a lookout for the forest service, Hallie Daggett.
1. Caroline Dorman (Learn more about Caroline Dorman)
Miss Carrie was born in 1888 in Natchitoches, where she grew up loving wildlife and plants. During the early stages in her life, she began an extensive catalog of Louisiana native plant species. After obtaining her degree in fine arts, with an emphasis on literature from Judson College in Alabama, she traveled to teach at many Louisiana rural primary schools where she was donned “Miss Carrie.”
In 1922, Miss Carrie began her career in forestry by convincing the U.S. Forest Service to establish Kisatchie National Forest. She worked on the establishment of this forest by writing hundreds of letters, holding rallies, and advocated for acts passed by Louisiana legislation during its founding in the 1930s.
Miss Carrie became known as the first woman to be employed in the forestry industry in the U.S. She went on to publish six books including multiple guides to native wildlife and plants, in order to assist in the establishment of Hodges Garden State Park and the Louisiana State Arboretum.
After Miss Carrie’s death in 1971, her home, which she willed to the public, became the Caroline Dorman Nature Preserve headquarters. A 10-mile trail was dedicated to her namesake in the Kisatchie Forest, and Caroline Dorman Junior High School was opened in Rapides Parish.
2. Hallie M. Daggett (Learn More about Hallie M. Daggett)
In 1905, when the Forest Service was established, not many could have conceived the idea of women being employed outside of secretarial or administrative work. When Hallie applied for the lookout position in 1913, the supervisor in charge of evaluating the applicants wrote to his superiors the following:
“This individual has all the requisites of a first-class Lookout…The novelty of the proposition which has been unloaded upon me, […] may perhaps take your breath away, and I hope your heart is strong enough to stand the shock. It is this: One of the most untiring and enthusiastic applicants which I have for the position is Miss Hallie Morse Daggett, a wide-awake woman of 30 years, who knows and has traversed every trail on the Salmon River watershed, and is thoroughly familiar with every foot of the District. She is an ardent advocate of the Forest Service, and seeks the position in evident good faith, and gives her solemn assurance that she will stay with her post faithfully until she is recalled”
Hallie M. Daggett served as the forest fire lookout at Eddy’s Gulch lookout Station, which was atop Klamath peak in the California National Forest, for 15 years starting in 1913. The lookout was housed at an elevation of 6,500 feet. Hallie earned a salary of $840 per year, with two days off per month.
When interviewed about her service for the American Forestry Journal in 1914, Hallie stated “I grew up with a fierce hatred of the devastating fires and welcomed the [Forest Service] force which arrived to combat them. But not until the lookout stations were installed did there come an opportunity to join what had up till then been a man’s fight.”
After her death in 1964, Hallie’s home (a cabin) was moved to the Etna, California city park where it was then converted to a historical site. The availability and cost-effectiveness of drones have reduced the number of fire lookouts from thousands to hundreds in recent years, but that doesn’t negate the fact that thousands of women served as fire look-outs in the past century after Hallie Daggett.
In 2017, 28% of the individuals who graduated with a bachelor’s in forestry, just like Margaret, were women (Data USA). As of 2015, 27% of foresters in the Forest Service were women (U.S. Forest Service). I hope that today you will take some time to reflect on the people who paved the path for you. Some of you may even be shattering ceilings with your own firsts! We can all look to the past for inspiration for our futures. These women were proof that you don’t need everyone to believe in you in order to succeed.