Forest Service chief set to testify before congressional committee on workplace abuse

In an ongoing battle of harassment and misconduct allegations at the U.S. Forest Service, its chief, Vicki Christiansen, is set to testify before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Thursday along with a former employee from the agency who claims to have been harassed by the former chief. Shannon Reed, an air quality specialist, claims in her written testimony she was viewed as a "sexual object" and that the former Forest Chief Tony Tooke grabbed her buttocks. "I did not report Mr. Tooke because I feared retaliation," Reed wrote. Tooke resigned after an investigation looking into the allegations made against him of sexual misconduct began. Shortly after, Christiansen, the interim chief at the time, issued a mandatory full-day training about harassment and safety in the work place. One hundred current and former female employees of the U.S. Forest Service, an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, wrote an open letter Wednesday to Christiansen, echoing Reed's fear of retaliation and to "expose serious issues of discrimination, harassment, and workplace violence against female employees."...MORE