This natural resources major was once a wildfire-fighting 'hot shot'

Caylin Goldey at the Lindseth Climbing Wall, where she taught for Cornell Outdoor Education. Golden is a natural resources major in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences from Oxford, Ohio. Nicola Kountoupes/University Photography

By Roger Segelken

The next time trees are burning and the call goes out for wildfire fighters, Caylin Goldey can say: "Been there, done that." She spent the summer of 2001 battling forest fires in the West. Goldey, 22, liked the dangerous work so much she returned last summer -- and stayed on with the 16-man, four-woman "hot shot" crew, missing the fall semester of her senior year.

"I couldn't leave just when fire season was heating up," Goldey said of her crew, noting the difference between hot shots and the better known "smoke jumpers." Hot shots sleep on the ground and hike to the fire, carrying everything on their backs. Smoke jumpers arrive by parachute.

Facing hundred-foot-high flames, "you learn a lot about yourself, whether you can meet the physical and mental demands," Goldey said. "It's a culture of calculated risk. You learn to pick the tree you'll dive behind if a burning, rolling stump comes at you."

The decision to skip a semester wasn't the first path change Goldey made. She started freshman year on the "doctor track," planning a pre-med bio major, then almost stalled out in introductory biology. The emphasis of the class was on life's microscopic processes, she remembers, "and I couldn't see the big picture." But at the end of the course, the instructor "brought it all together" by discussing ecology.

That led to a course in ecology and another in natural resources. Goldey was hooked, switching majors and loving the opportunity to work hands-on, out-of-doors. Among the rare times Goldey had a roof over her head was while teaching climbing for Cornell Outdoor Education at the university's Lindseth Climbing Wall. "It's been great introducing other students to something that's played such an important role in my life," she said.

Yes, Goldey made up the missed credits, in part with a winter break class called Sustainable Tropical Ecosystems, in Costa Rica, where her fire-fighting earnings paid tuition. The next adventure begins June 2, when she starts as a fisheries biologist in California's Tahoe National Forest.

"Wildfire fighting takes a toll on your body, mind and spirit," said the hot shot. "That why I'm excited to have a job where I can put my major to work."

Then she paused, as if the smoke had cleared but not the memories. "Although ... if they really needed me, I'd jump back on the fireline in a heartbeat."