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Trump's Pick To Lead Forest Service Pledges To Take On Sexual Harassment

The Forest Service is in charge of a land area bigger than Colorado and Idaho combined, and many of those acres are here in the Mountain West.
U.S. Forest Service, Northern Region
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Flickr Creative Commons
The Forest Service is in charge of a land area bigger than Colorado and Idaho combined, and many of those acres are here in the Mountain West.

President Trump’s pick to oversee the Forest Service went before a Senate committee Tuesday.

 

If he’s confirmed, James Hubbard will be in charge of timber resources, wilderness areas and campgrounds across our region as under secretary of natural resources and the environment for the U.S. Department of Agriculture. But he’ll also head up an agency that’s grappling with discrimination and sexual harassment claims.

Since 2016, dozens of Forest Service employees have come forward to talk about being verbally or physically harassed by coworkers or managers. Michigan Senator Debbie Stabenow pressed Hubbard on how he would deal with the problem. 

"The Forest Service must do a better job of establishing a culture where sexual misconduct is not tolerated—where accusations are investigated thoroughly and properly and where offenders are held accountable," Stabenow says. 

Hubbard said the agency has made progress, but that he wants to make sure it sticks. 

"It would be my first briefing to find out where they are," says Hubbard. "Harassment has no place, anywhere."

Committee members are expected to vote on Hubbard’s nomination this week. He’ll then go before the full senate for confirmation. 

 

Find reporter Amanda Peacher on Twitter  @amandapeacher .

Copyright 2018 Boise State Public Radio

This story was produced by the Mountain West News Bureau, a collaboration between Wyoming Public Media, Boise State Public Radio in Idaho, Yellowstone Public Radio in Montana, KUER in Salt Lake City and KRCC and KUNC in Colorado .

Copyright 2020 Boise State Public Radio News. To see more, visit Boise State Public Radio News.

Amanda Peacher is an Arthur F. Burns fellow reporting and producing in Berlin in 2013. Amanda is from Portland, Oregon, where she works as the public insight journalist for Oregon Public Broadcasting. She produces radio and online stories, data visualizations, multimedia projects, and facilitates community engagement opportunities for OPB's newsroom.
Amanda Peacher
Amanda Peacher works for the Mountain West News Bureau out of Boise State Public Radio. She's an Idaho native who returned home after a decade of living and reporting in Oregon. She's an award-winning reporter with a background in community engagement and investigative journalism.