Montana hasn’t elected a Democrat to the House since the late 1990s. Smokejumper Sam Forstag, who jumps out of planes into the remote wilderness to put out wildfires, is trying to change that. Forstag joins “The Takeout” to lay out his progressive campaign in the deep-red state.

MISSOULA, Mont. — In this week’s Amazing America, NBC Montana is highlighting smokejumpers and their efforts to keep our communities safe during wildfire season.

NBC Montana caught up with a current and a former smokejumper to learn more about the work they do and how the job has changed throughout the years.

Jim Kitchen was a smokejumper for 20 seasons, fought over 100 fires and raised his three daughters on a smokejumper base, where he served as base commander.

Kitchen says he’ll never forget his first jump, when he started training in Fairbanks, Alaska, in 1987.

“I went, ‘That was amazing,’ and he goes, ‘Yeah,’ and I go, ‘Have you ever done anything as amazing in your life? I mean, we just made our first jump,” said Kitchen.

Kitchen told NBC Montana when he laughed his crew had to do 50 pushups.

Kitchen saw several changes during his career, including women entering a historically male-dominated field. He told NBC Montana Deanne Shulman, the first woman smokejumper, paved the way for the industry.

He recalled a time when he was on a trip to Washington, D.C. , in the early ’90s to coordinate emergency response, when a U.S. Department of State official asked him a question.

“He goes, ‘I didn’t realize men were smokejumpers.’ And I had to go, ‘Peter, I’ll have you know, there’s quite a few of us, and actually, it’s the women that are rare,’” said Kitchen “The early ladies in smokejumping, they always met and exceeded the bar, and they were instrumental in doing these winter details.”

Another change he oversaw as base commander, was moving from round parachutes used in World War II, to the ones used today.

“Ram-Air parachutes that inflate make the shape of the wing and they actually have about a 20 mph forward speed. And so you can you can fly those in much windier conditions, higher elevations,” said Kitchen.

Kitchen says the job requires you to roll with the punches and make quick decisions on the fly.

He said while training new jumpers, he taught them early to prepare and never hesitate.

“The only thing that we ask of you is that you take all the information that you can and then make a decision,” said Kitchen.

Nick Holloway, a current Missoula smokejumper, who’s been working for 14 seasons, says it’s important to rely on your training, stay positive and persevere.

“Having done this for a few years, it’s just trying to know that essentially every season is a marathon, it’s not a sprint. Just stay healthy, stay focused and keep having a good time,” said Holloway.

NBC Montana asked both men what they were most proud of during their time jumping.

Kitchen recalled fighting a fire near the Grand Canyon, when he and his crew decided to manage a fire instead of suppressing it when they ponderosa pine trees.

The crew let the fire burn to a plateau, “The Ponderosa pine has about a 20 to 30-year fire return interval in that area,” said Kitchen. “That’s one of the high points as far as land stewardship of my career is seeing fire on a landscape escape and not necessarily suppressing it but allowing it to burn, because then you’re saying it’s good for decades after that.”

Holloway told NBC Montana, while he has “too many to count,” he’s most proud that recently he jumped a 3- to 5-acre fire at Yellowstone National Park.

The fire grew to 8 acres, “So seven days later we got around everything, put it all out and essentially with a good product upon departure. So it’s just a classic example of a smokejumper fire.”

Holloway says staying fit for annual trainings, regardless of experience, is critical to staying fire-ready.

“Pushups, pullups, sit-ups, a certain amount and then a mile and a half in a certain time as well,” said Holloway.

Kitchen told NBC Montana he still does his pullups, pushups and sit-ups.

“Many of my colleagues are still in really fit shape even in their 60s, 70s and 80s,” he said.

Without federally planned public meetings about planned repeal of the 2001 policy, organizations host events in Bozeman and across the state

By Jen Clancey STAFF WRITER 

As more residents arrived to a Gallatin County Fairgrounds building on March 12, organizers unfolded and added chairs to rows of people ready to listen or offer public comment about the planned repeal of the 2001 Roadless Rule. The meeting was led by a group of organizations creating public input opportunities about the rescission of the conservation policy, and Bozeman was the second to last meeting location in a series of seven across the state. 

In June 2025, the U.S. The Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced intentions to repeal the Roadless Rule. Adopted under the Clinton Administration, the law banned construction, re-construction and timber harvesting on more than 58 million acres of public land. In Montana, six million acres are protected as roadless. 

Hilary Eisen, the federal policy director at Wild Montana, explained that a group of public land advocates collected over 4,000 signatures and petitioned the chief of the U.S. Forest Service to hold public meetings regarding the Roadless Rule repeal, but the USFS did not respond. Thirteen organizations decided to group together and plan public meetings themselves instead. 

“It needs to happen, like there needs to be community conversations about this very impactful change,” Eisen told Explore Big Sky. “So we’re hoping that maybe by demonstrating to the Forest Service how this works, that they will change their mind and they’ll hold meetings, but at the very least we are hoping that we can at least provide that opportunity.”

The event, centering on the Custer-Gallatin National Forest, began with a short panel with Ryan Callahan, CEO and president of Backcountry Hunters and Anglers, Lisa Stoeffler, former Bozeman Ranger District leader with decades of forest management experience, and Vasu Sojitra, a professional mountain athlete, filmmaker and adaptive sports advocate. 

Stoeffler described how protection has become more important since the Roadless Rule’s implementation, including threats of wildfire, water scarcity and climate change. 

“There’s simply no good reason to upend the good work done at a local level with no rationale for doing so,” Stoeffler said. While the USFS has stated that roads promote access to fighting wildfires, research as reported by Robert Chaney in Mountain Journal, has shown that fire starts happen more frequently when in proximity to a road. In the meeting, Stoeffler shared that there are ways to improve the roadless rule, but warned against broad changes in lieu of carefully weighing site-specific solutions. 

Sojitra also shared his perspective as an outdoors advocate with a disability.
“One of the biggest things for folks with disabilities is that we don’t need more roads to get places,” Sojitra said. “ We just need more programming to get to places.”

Sojitra also explained that through adaptive programming, he was able to fall in love with the outdoors, like many in the room, and that protecting the environment and wilderness is vital to health.

Public comment began later, and residents lined up one after the other to share what the Roadless Rule means to them, whether or not they support it, and why. Bozeman resident Karissa Wedman shared her experience working in conservation and wildland firefighting. She described her appreciation for protected public lands and noted that as a 25-year-old, the Roadless Rule has been in place her entire life. 

“I would like to say something for people my age and younger,” Wedman said. “It’s that we don’t wanna lose this. We love this, and it’s scary to think of the rest of our lives without it.”

Another Bozeman resident, Scott Bischke, described his connection with outdoor spaces in Montana. 

“ We looked at the map today—just of all the road areas in Montana—and [I’m] confident to say that we have either recreated in each one of them or at the minimum been adjacent to them, fishing, hunting, enjoying the outdoors, all the different things that we do,” he said. 

He then directed his comments about the current administration and urged leadership to use the Roadless Rule to protect further lands “for the critters that live there and for future Americans to explore.” 

Other commenters included a Gallatin Gateway resident speaking to protect forests for future generations, including his 8-year-old granddaughter, and an Ennis resident and board member of the Montana Logging Association, who argued that the Roadless Rule needs deep reform. 

The USFS is expected to release its proposed rule and draft environmental impact statement in late March or early April. When it’s released, Wild Montana will compile all of the comments collected in meetings, both verbal and written, and send the comments to the USFS. There will be hundreds, as attendance at meetings across the state was robust, Wild Montana Organizing Director Kascie Herron said. 

“I’ve been blown away personally by the amount of community response that we’ve seen in each of these towns [where] we’ve held these meetings,” Herron said. She described comments from people on both sides of the argument, and noted that it was important to host meetings that promoted the democratic process typically seen in major land management decisions. 

Helena was the final meeting location after Bozeman, and the coalition will now focus on communicating with attendees and preparing for the public comment stage.