U.S. Forest Service leaves GR

The U.S. Forest Service has abandoned its presence in Green River after the previous employee found new work.

Tuesday night, Rebecca Eusek, director of the Green River Chamber of Commerce said the forest service has left the visitor center with one less person to work during the summer travel months.

“For summertime, we’ve lost one full-time employee,” Eusek said. “This is an issue.”

The forest service subleases the visitor center as a location to greet people traveling to the Ashley National Forest south of Green River. The hiring and communications freezes initiated by the federal government has resulted in the forest service opting not to renew its lease in May.

The forest service has operated out of the visitors center since it was built in 2011.

“It’s sad to see them go,” Councilman Robert Berg said.

Berg believes the partnership between the chamber and forest service was mutually beneficial and hopes Eusek is able to renew the forest service’s interest in the visitors center, but has concerns that the issue is out of the local decision makers’ hands.

A majority of the Ashley National Forest is located in Utah, which contains 1,287,909 acres of the total 1,384,132 acres of national forest.