Utah state and county leaders pushed federal officials and park superintendents for expanded access and increased visitation at the state’s national parks in a closed-door meeting on Monday, according to those who attended.
The meeting covered a wide array of topics, including the federal government shutdown, timed entry systems at Arches and Zion National Parks, trails, roads and off-highway vehicle use, according to reports from city, county and state officials.
“It really was just a whole day of wish lists” from county and state officials, said Barbara Bruno, mayor of Springdale, a gateway community to Zion National Park.
The state’s Public Lands Policy Coordinating Office convened the meeting, which included leading federal and state officials such as Interior Department Deputy Secretary Karen Budd-Falen and Lt. Gov. Diedre Henderson, according to city and state officials. Representatives from Utah’s outdoor recreation, state parks and tourism offices were also present, as well park superintendents, county leaders and mayors of national park gateway communities.
Grand County Commissioner Trisha Hedin, who attended the meeting, criticized the “top down” approach and said the overarching theme of the meeting was about increasing access to the parks and getting “as many people in there as possible.”
“I thought it was really backward, and so it made people very weary and leery,” Hedin said. “I think it could have actually been a really productive meeting, but when you go in with your hackles up, it doesn’t feel good.”
The meeting sparked some concerns that this may be another move by Utah to seize control of federal public lands after three failed attempts earlier this year. The Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance called the meeting the state’s “latest effort to undermine and dismantle the nation’s public lands system” in a news release on Tuesday.
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) A billboard along Interstate 80 for the state’s “Stand for our Land” campaign against the Bureau of Land Management to regain control of public lands in Utah, is pictured on Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024.
The state dismissed such claims. “This was not about the state taking over management of the national parks. We are the Public Lands Policy Coordinating Office, so we coordinate with all of our federal partners, and we do it on a regular basis,” said Redge Johnson, the office’s director.
While county and state leaders often meet with Interior and the National Park Service, Johnson did acknowledge it’s “unique” for the state to convene representatives from all the parks in one meeting.
“It was not a full-on land grab or anything like that,” said Bruno, “but it was clearly an opportunity to start talking about some of the things that the state would like to see happen with those parks.”
The wish list
Throughout the meeting, county and state officials presented their desires for Utah’s national parks, monuments and recreation areas. The reservation systems at Arches and Zion National Parks were a major topic of discussion.
Washington County and Kane County expressed their opposition to a timed-entry system at Zion, Bruno said. The park is currently developing its visitor use management plan, and a reservation system is a possible path forward. State and county leaders said earlier this year that they want a timed-entry system off the table, raising concerns that it could turn visitors away and hurt the local economy.
Bruno was not invited to present, despite representing the gateway community most affected by park crowds. She still shared how high visitation affects her community from the audience, though, she said.
“When [visitors] arrive on Labor Day weekend at 9 a.m. and they’re in a line, they’re in a line that’s on the one road in and out of our town, and our folks don’t get home, and we don’t get mail delivery at our homes, and we don’t get to the post office,” she said in an interview with The Tribune.
Bruno said she wants the planning process to continue so the park can figure out the best path forward to accommodate growing crowds. Zion was the second most visited national park in the country last year.
(Leah Hogsten | The Salt Lake Tribune) The parking lot at The Windows is full in Arches National Park, Monday, May 15, 2023. In April 2023, Arches National Park implemented a timed entry system to pace visitors’ arrival times to alleviate overcrowding and congestion among some 1.8 million visitors a year.
For Arches, Grand County Commissioner Brian Martinez presented a proposal a majority of county commissioners would like included in the park’s visitor use planning process, the Access and Capacity Enhancement Alternative, according to Hedin. The proposal includes a package of non-reservation ideas to manage crowds, such as expanded parking, new trail connections and greater use of real-time traffic and visitation data.
For the past four years, Arches has been testing a timed-entry pilot system. The system has drawn mixed reactions locally. Some county officials like Martinez are concerned it may be hurting the economy.
Moab Mayor Joette Langianese doesn’t want timed entry to go away, though, and expressed her support of the system during the meeting on Monday, she told The Tribune. “We’re not seeing any kind of economic impact to the city of Moab from the timed-entry,” she said.
She said the conversation around Arches felt “balanced” and she was grateful that mayors were included in the meeting. “It was really good to meet the deputy secretary and have her hear our perspective on what’s happening at Arches and Canyonlands National Park,” she said.
Deputy Secretary Budd-Falen shared that the Interior Department is currently working on a mobile application that would help park visitors find nearby attractions, such as hikes outside the parks or restaurants in nearby communities, as they’re waiting for their reservation slot or turned away because of long lines, according to Langianese.
Other ideas discussed include opening more areas to off highway vehicle use in Glen Canyon National Recreation Area and Capitol Reef National Park, as well as paving the entirety of the Burr Trail in Capitol Reef, according to a report from Hedin that was published in the Grand County Commission meeting agenda Tuesday.
(Bethany Baker | The Salt Lake Tribune) A car drives past the sign for Capitol Reef National Park near Torrey on Saturday, June 7, 2025.
The state would also like to see park areas that close seasonally open more, according to Hedin’s report, including Rainbow Point Road in Bryce Canyon National Park, the visitor center at Hovenweep National Monument and the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, which is in Arizona but near southwest Utah towns such as Kanab.
“The overarching theme was … more access and getting as many people in there as possible, which is discouraging,” Hedin said.
Bruno noted that environmental concerns were absent from the discussion. “It was all about how these properties are economic drivers for the state. … Nobody talked about preserving the natural resources,” she said.
That focus is “extremely concerning” and is drifting from the reasons parks were protected, Cory MacNulty, southwest regional campaign director with the National Parks Conservation Association, told The Tribune.
“They seem to be really focused on short term economic gain with a willingness to sacrifice long term park planning, park resources, as well as the visitor experience,” MacNulty said.
Collaboration going forward
The meeting also covered how the state, national parks and Interior Department work together going forward, particularly during a government shutdown.
The state spent $336,000 to keep visitor centers open at parks across Utah during the recent shutdown, according to Anna Loughridge, communications director for the Utah Office of Tourism.
“I’d like to say we’ll never have another shutdown, but that’s probably not likely, so if and when that happens again, we just wanted to talk about a way that we could do that more smoothly,” Johnson, PLPCO’s director, said.
Officials also discussed maintenance backlogs at parks and how the state may be able to help with those costs, Johnson said. This year, the state helped cover the costs of a new sewer line in Zion National Park to replace a failing septic system.
Cuts to the Park Service’s staff and budget were not discussed at the meeting, according to both Hedin and Langianese. The National Park Service has lost 25% of their staff since the beginning of 2025, and the Trump administration has proposed massive cuts to the agency’s budget.
(Erin Schaff | The New York Times) Park Rangers assist visitors at Zion National Park, Aug. 15, 2025. The mandate to keep the parks open coupled with insufficient staff has forced employees to take on multiple roles.
“They asked for more people to be allowed into the parks,” MacNulty said. “They asked for OHVs to be allowed on roads. They asked for roads to be paved and a number of other things, but they did not ask for the restoration of adequate staffing and funding for the park service.”
State, county and federal officials did not come to any final agreements on future collaboration during shutdowns or park maintenance costs during the meeting on Monday, Johnson said. Deputy Secretary Budd-Falen said she’d follow up with park superintendents on topics discussed, according to Langianese.
“There was nothing earth shattering,” Johnson said, “and no decisions were made.”
