ROCK SPRINGS — The Sweetwater County Sheriff’s Office and the Rock Springs Grazing Association are joining forces to clean up a major nuisance along the Green River.

Sheriff Rich Haskell said that a stretch of nearly three miles along the east bank of the Green River, in an area northwest of the city of Green River known commonly as the “Owl’s Nest” has become strewn with garbage and abandoned camper trailers and vehicles.

Haskell said deputies have tagged as abandoned seven camper trailers, four vehicles of various types, a utility trailer, two four-wheelers, and a motorcycle.

“These are basically squatter’s villages and campsites,” said Haskell.  “There has been at least one instance of a wanted person hiding out there, and we’re going to clean these places out.”

On October 4, deputies tracked fugitive Johnnie Reitz, wanted on felony drug charges, to one of the squatter’s encampments and arrested him there. Haskell said there have also been disturbances and other issues in the area.

Patrol deputies have reported in that there is no one living at any of the sites at present.

The land, with the exception of one small patch where garbage has been dumped, belongs to the Rock Springs Grazing Association, headquartered in Rock Springs.

Don Schramm of the RSGA met recently with Sheriff Haskell and others from the Sheriff’s Office to set up procedures for the cleanup. Haskell said inmate workers from the Inmate Community Service Program will provide the muscle for the garbage and refuse pickup. The vehicles, campers, and trailers will be hauled or towed away for disposal.

“People have fished and gone picnicking along there for many years and generally took good care of the ground,” Schramm said.  “We’ve always had a pretty open policy about that. Our goal is to get things back where they were, and keep squatters away once they are.”

–From a press release