February is typically the slow season at Zion National Park.
Yet, there was no shortage of people headed to the southwest Utah park on Feb. 22, as cars backed up into the neighboring town of Springdale.
Right next to the slow procession of vehicles, more than 100 people held up signs protesting the Trump administration’s mass firing of an estimated 1,000 National Park Service workers.
“I truly believe that all Americans love the parks, and so we're here today fighting for them, fighting for their future,” said Jaechon Anderson, a local yoga studio owner who helped organize the protest. “Mother Nature doesn't have her own voice, so she needs us right now.”
The cuts not only hurt park staff, but they will likely have a ripple effect, she said. That includes private sector positions in local communities, such as Anderson’s partner’s job as an adventure guide. Visitors to Utah’s five national parks spent $3 billion in 2024 and supported 26,507 jobs.
Zion has not commented on the number of people who were fired. Springdale Mayor Barbara Bruno said about a dozen rangers lost their jobs at the park this month, including some who staffed the entry gate where the protestors gathered.
“Today's just a day in February, and look at the line,” Bruno said, gesturing to the cars waiting to get into the park. “So, we're more concerned about — not the big holidays — but the everyday kind of traffic and congestion that we might experience.”
Springdale is a small town of 514, but it is directly outside Zion’s main entrance and many of its businesses cater to park visitors. More than 4.9 million people came to Zion in 2024, and the park had four times as many visitors in May as it had in February.
On busy summer days, the mayor said the line of cars waiting to enter Zion can stretch well into town, filling up Springdale’s main road. That blocks residents from their homes and makes it hard for emergency vehicles to get through.
Bruno is not worried that people will stop coming to Zion entirely. The park still attracted more than 3.5 million visitors in 2020 at the height of the pandemic. Yet, the staff cuts could change the visitor experience, she said, with the potential for longer lines and fewer activities.
Firing so many workers can also make it harder for the park staff who are still on the job.
“They're beloved members of our community, and I feel for them,” Bruno said. “I think that they're all sort of worried about what the future holds.”
That’s a big concern, especially as Utah’s outdoor recreation tourism season ramps up, said Macie Monahan. She was a biologist at nearby Bryce Canyon National Park until she received the mass firing email on Feb 14.
“It's a scary time to see what's going to happen with our public lands and our ability to manage them for public experience and use and enjoyment,” Monahan said. “We're not doing it selfishly for us. It's for the public. It’s a public service. … It's just a shame.”
Bryce Canyon and many other national parks were already understaffed, Monahan said, and she worries the cuts will make it harder to operate visitor centers and maintain trails. That’s in addition to disrupting the work that rangers like her were doing to better understand and preserve the landscapes and ecosystems that draw people to the parks. She’s one of two rangers at Bryce Canyon who were fired, that she knows of.
The Associated Press reports the federal government plans to reinstate a small number of national park service jobs and hire thousands of seasonal workers, although it’s unclear when that might happen. Even so, Monahan said it’s unlikely the park staff could be restored soon even if workers are re-hired.
“I hope and pray we can get back to what we were doing before, eventually,” Monahan said. “But it's going to take many, many years.”
