Shutdown spreads financial pain across Southeast

WRANGELL — Local U.S. Forest Service employees express frustration with the ongoing government shutdown this week.

The Wrangell Unit of the Tongass National Forest has been closed for 15 days following negotiations between the Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives and the Democrat-controlled U.S. Senate Oct. 1. The office’s 28 employees have been instructed call a 1-800 phone number each day to determine whether the office will be reopened, according to Forest Service Ranger Bob Dalrymple.

Dalrymple himself and one other person in the office’s law enforcement branch are both exem...