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By Libby Riddle, UM News Service

MISSOULA – Every year on Veterans Day weekend, the �����ؿ�’s Beth Dodson and a group of her close friends set out on an all-women outdoor excursion nicknamed the BHTE – “Best Hunting Trip Ever.”

The trip is more than just a chance to be outdoors and harvest food for their families. It's also the continuation of 15 years of building a support network with other women in the historically male-dominated field of forestry. That sense of camaraderie extends beyond the backcountry and into Dodson’s classroom, where she is keenly aware of the impact her leadership role has on her students.

Until recently, she was the only female forest operations professor in the country.

“When I was in my master’s program or going to conferences, I would notice that I was the only woman in the room,” said Dodson, a UM professor and department head of the forestry degree program in the W.A. Franke College of Forestry and Conservation. “But it didn’t really hit me until I was a (teaching assistant) for a course and a female student came up to me and said, ‘Thank you so much. Before you, I had no idea what I would do in this field.’ And this floored me. Because there’s nothing in this field that has anything to do with gender.”

Despite that, women make up less than 20% of forestry professionals, but you wouldn’t know that in western �����ؿ�. Dodson, along with three UM alumni – who also happen to be her best friends and hunting partners – are not only succeeding in the field, but paving the way for future generations of female foresters.

Cindy Super grew up along the Blackfoot River in Ovando, where her dad worked as a state forester. After a childhood spent surrounded by foresters and wildland firefighters, she received an ROTC scholarship to study forestry at UM.

“I was lucky enough as part of my student military training to be sent to airborne school where they teach you how to jump out of planes and land,” Super said. “That was the most fun thing I’d ever done in my life.”

That experience inspired Super to apply to be a smokejumper, a highly trained wildland firefighter that parachutes into remote areas. She fought fire with the Missoula Smokejumpers while in school before leaving for active duty. When she returned to �����ؿ� six years later, she began a multidecade career with the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation – undeterred at entering yet another male-dominated field after leaving the military.

“I used to tell myself it’s like going to bat with a strike already against you,” Super said. “People are going to give you chances but not as many.” 

Now, Super is the forestry and prescribed fire coordinator for the Blackfoot Challenge, where she works closely with landowners to restore the forests she grew up in while mitigating dangers posed by wildfires.

Sarah Lyngholm was a year behind Super in school and credits her as one of her early inspirations.

“I remember everyone was so impressed that Cindy was going to be a smokejumper,” Lyngholm said. “It was so cool to be surrounded by that kind of energy.”

Lyngholm, originally from central Pennsylvania, obtained her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in forestry at UM, where she was an active member of the forestry club and the Society of American Foresters. After graduating, she was hired by the DNRC, where she’s worked in timber sales and environmental planning for 20 years. She now serves as a program specialist for the DNRC’s Good Neighbor Authority, which supports partnerships between state and federal land management agencies.

Unlike her friends and colleagues, Lyngholm has had several female mentors and supervisors in her career with the state.

“I’ve had female supervisors for a lot of my career,” Lyngholm said. “Just knowing that there are women in leadership – even if they’re not 50% – that’s always been nice.” 

Lyngholm said these women made her feel comfortable communicating with her supervisors and setting good boundaries.

“I’ll come in, I’ll work hard, and then I’ll go have my life. I’m comfortable being myself like that,” Lyngholm said. “But if I didn’t see them doing those things, I’m not sure I would have had the confidence to.”

 Amy Helena overlapped with Super and Lyngholm at UM, but they didn’t become friends until later in their careers. Helena grew up in a logging family in Trout Creek. After getting an associate’s degree from Flathead Community College and working at the nearby Plum Creek Timber sawmill, Helena set her sights on a four-year degree in forestry at UM to expand her career options.

“I wanted to be a forester because I wanted to be alone in the woods with nobody bothering me,” Helena said. “At UM it became evident that relationships and public speaking were just as important as loving the outdoors. I really had to work on that because that’s just not my personality.”

After graduating, Helena worked for Stimson Lumber in Bonner, where she first met Dodson, who came to bid on a logging job. When the Bonner mill closed, she joined the DNRC, where she fought fire with Super and became fast friends. She’s been with the state ever since and became the Missoula unit manager in 2022.

As her friends and colleagues are quick to point out, Helena is one of the first female unit managers at the DNRC.

“I’ve had very few times where I felt like my being a woman was the reason for something,” Helena said. “But you feel like you have to work harder because of it. That’s something you have to work through internally all the time.”

For Dodson, Super, Lyngholm and Helena, success in forestry hasn’t just been about forging their own paths – it’s been about supporting one another and ensuring others can follow. Because for many of them, that support system didn’t always exist.

“I don’t think I had any female supervisors or mentors,” Helena said. “The women I really look up to are the ones I came up with. Now I’m surrounded by the likes of Cindy, Beth and Sarah, but it didn’t used to be like that.”

Dodson makes a deliberate effort to bring female forestry professionals – many of whom are her closest friends – into her UM classroom. While this certainly has an impact on female students, Dodson is just as aware of the influence that these well-respected women role models have on the male students.   

“I want to make sure that when they leave here, they don’t have a false sense that women don’t know what they’re talking about when it comes to logging and forestry,” Dodson said. “I don’t shy away from my own technical knowledge, and I make sure that I’m getting folks like Sarah and Cindy and Amy in front of my students.”

When they visit Dodson’s classes, their advice to young women in natural resources fields emphasizes finding your fit and staying true to yourself even when you feel different.

“You can bring so much more when you’re just yourself,” Super said. “Don’t feel like you have to change who you are to fit in.”

Lyngholm added, “Forestry is a very expansive field. Go and sample different jobs and agencies, and you’ll figure out your fit. Don’t feel obligated to stay somewhere you’re not appreciated.” 

The women acknowledge that this can be easier said than done, but their close relationships with one another remind young professionals that no one has to navigate these fields alone. They encourage students to take care of themselves, their friends and their communities – lessons they’ve learned firsthand. 

“Because of them, I know that I always have a lifeline. This support system has been invaluable to me,” Helena said. “I hope everyone finds a group like we have.”

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Contact: Elizabeth Harrison, director of communications, W.A. Franke College of Forestry & Conservation, 917-656-9773, elizabeth.harrison@mso.umt.edu.