CARLSBAD, N.M. – Madison Kinney was in her teens when she discovered her passion for nature and conservation. After nearly a year as a ranger at Scottsbluff National Monument, she set her sights on the Land of Enchantment.

“After college I really wanted to go into this field, and I just started applying anywhere that would take me and Carlsbad was one of my dream parks because I really like rocks, and I really like caves,” said Kinney.

Little did she know it would all be over after four short months. Kinney was one of the hundreds of thousands of federal employees fired at the direction of DOGE.

“It was kind of like this gut-wrenching feeling of ‘I just lost my job, I am 12 hours away from my family,” she said.

She said rangers do a lot more than people think, including maintaining the park and protecting the caves’ ecosystem. In addition to the resources that go into training park rangers.

“It takes about $30,000 to hire and train somebody and so in our park alone you are looking at half a million dollars of tax dollars that have been wasted because they fired us 4.5 months into our job here basically,” she said.

Despite everything, she is doing her best to keep her head above water and find her next step.

“I have no clue what I am going to do. I have just been applying to private sector jobs trying to find something, but I had to go into work that day when I was supposed to be on my vacation still and basically sign away my dream job,” said Kinney.