Park rangers at Zion National Park returned to work with smiles on their faces last week after the federal government shutdown came to an end.
“Getting back into the normal swing of things is certainly a beautiful thing,” said Natalie Britt, CEO of Zion Forever Project, “and you can feel the joy on rangers’ faces when they see folks they haven’t seen.”
Many rangers at Zion and Utah’s four other national parks not only missed paychecks throughout the 43-day shutdown, but also working alongside their colleagues. Roughly two-thirds of national park rangers across the country were furloughed, according to the National Park Service’s shutdown plan.
Zion kept on critical staff to keep visitors safe, such as search and rescue and custodial crews. “Staff worked diligently to safeguard natural and cultural resources, protect wildlife, and maintain sanitation, visitor safety, and emergency response,” Matt Fink, spokesperson for the park, said in a statement. “The NPS leveraged partnerships, streamlined internal coordination, and reduced red tape to sustain critical operations.”
While the end of the shutdown brings some immediate relief, a long recovery is just beginning.
“Furloughed park staff now face the daunting task of returning to parks to assess and address the damage, a process that could take months,” said Kristen Brengel, the National Parks Conservation Association’s senior vice president of government affairs, in a news release last week.
The full toll of the shutdown on national parks is still being assessed. Zion lost an estimated $1.7 million in fee revenue during October alone, according to Britt. Those fees, Britt added, cover critical park operations such as the shuttle service, trail maintenance, resource protection and visitor safety.
“When you lose that fee, and you’re also facing year over year congressional budget cuts, you move out of a situation of sustainability and solvency,” Britt said. “You’re having to move as much as you can to visitor front services, and then you start losing things like habitat protection, resource protection.”
(Brooke Larsen | The Salt Lake Tribune) Visitors to Zion National Park stop by the visitor center on Friday, Oct. 10, 2025. Utah dedicated funds to keep national park visitor centers open during the federal government shutdown.
The state of Utah stepped up to help stave off some of the immediate funding crisis during the shutdown. The state spent $336,000 to keep visitor centers open at parks across Utah, according to Anna Loughridge, public relations manager for the Utah Office of Tourism. That’s money the state can’t recoup from the federal government, Loughridge said.
“Utah led the nation in keeping parks open and accessible during the longest Government Shutdown in U.S. history,” said Natalie Randall, the managing director of the Utah Office of Tourism and Film, in an email newsletter last week.
Zion Forever Project, the park’s nonprofit partner that raises money for the park and operates retail stores in visitor centers, also tried to make up some of the lost fee revenue. They hung up posters with QR codes to a donation link and collected donations at their store inside Zion’s main visitor center. In total, parkgoers donated over $180,000 during their visit.
The nonprofit also lost some revenue from the closure of retail stores in shuttered visitor centers, though. While the state kept some visitor centers open, less frequently visited ones, such as Kolob Canyons, remained closed. That led to an additional shortfall of over $200,000 in revenue that would have gone back to the park, Britt said.
The loss of fee revenue may affect park education programs, trail maintenance and resource protection going forward, but it’s unclear exactly what shortfalls parks may have to navigate as budgets for next year haven’t been approved yet. The latest bill that was passed to end the shutdown only funds the government through the end of January 2026.
“How do you think about work in the long term when you only have 90 days?” Britt said. “I think that is an inherent challenge.”
The National Parks Conservation Association last week called on Congress to protect national park funding. “Congress must heed the will of the American people and come together to fund parks so they can remain open, staffed and protected,” Brengel said in a statement.
(Brooke Larsen | The Salt Lake Tribune) Orange signs with QR codes ask visitors to Zion National Park for entrance fee donations during the federal government shutdown on Friday, Oct. 10, 2025.
The park service has already lost 25% of its permanent staff since January, according to the National Parks Conservation Association. Internal park data obtained by The New York Times in July showed that reduced staffing was affecting Zion’s capacity to respond to emergencies and maintain restrooms and water systems.
“Even before the shutdown, national parks were already feeling the strain, forced to cancel ranger programs, close visitor centers, and halt essential maintenance and research,” said Brengel.
Going forward, Zion Forever, which has stood by the park through “fires, floods, pandemics and shutdowns” will continue to give as much aid to the park as it can, Britt said. Where that money goes, and what programs may ultimately have to be cut, will depend on what funding decisions Congress makes in the coming months.
“Making the park whole again is going to take time, a lot of collaboration and some serious creative problem solving,” Britt said.