Traci DuBose moved 600 miles to Wisconsin last summer to start her dream job. Eight months later, she was terminated by the federal government, shattering that dream.
The official notice of her firing incorrectly listed her as working in Indianapolis, nowhere near the U.S. Geological Survey science center in La Crosse where she worked as a research fish biologist, studying threatened freshwater mussels in the Mississippi River and elsewhere.
DuBose is one of about a half-dozen scientists fired last month from the Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center, which sits on French Island between the Black River and Mississippi River and employs about 90 people, according to a staff directory. Other terminated employees were tracking invasive carp, researching aquatic ecosystems, restoring habitats and mapping environmental features…