Leaked recording reveals firings and disarray at agency
The leader of the Cibola National Forest told Forest Service employees at a staff meeting Wednesday that the agency would be refocusing on “mission critical” areas like uranium mining, according to a recording of the meeting Source New Mexico obtained. Officials also told staff that 15 employees had been fired.
The virtual all-hands meeting with more than 100 employees laid bare the confusion and concerns among rank-and-file members amid a flurry of presidential executive orders; mass firings of probationary employees; and mixed signals from President Donald Trump and his newly confirmed United States Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins.
The Cibola National Forest and Grasslands is nearly 2 million acres, most of which falls in New Mexico but also spills into western Oklahoma and northern Texas. It contains four ranger districts, including the Sandia Mountains overlooking Albuquerque, and Mount Taylor, one of four sacred mountains to the Navajo people.
The area around Mount Taylor is where uranium mining could resume again, forest leaders said at the meeting. McRoberts cited recent executive orders as a mandate falling on her and those she oversees. …