Zion to develop new Visitor Use Management Plan

Since 2005, visitation to Zion National Park has grown dramatically, making a visit to the park a much different experience than it was just a decade ago.

"People are beginning to complain about it," said Marcel Rodriguez, a Springdale resident who spent 17 years working as a seasonal park ranger at Zion and who currently volunteers at the park's visitor center. "Thanksgiving week I had a visitor asking about less traveled trails. She had done Angels Landing and said it was horribly crowded and no fun at all. She said there's no way it could be more crowded, there was no time when you couldn't reach out and touch another hiker in front of you. To me that's not a park experience."

A decade ago, a total of 2.6 million people visited Zion National Park. In July of 2005, the busiest month for park visitation that year, 349,605 people came through the park's gates, according to statistics from the National Park Service.

In July of 2015, that number jumped to 481,398. Once visitation statistics for the month of December are factored in, it is very likely that the park will have had more than a million additional visitors in 2015 than it did a decade ago, park officials said.

The park's general management plan was published in 2001 in order "to describe the general path the National Park Service intends to follow in managing Zion National Park over the next 20 years."

While the document is now 15 years old, Aly Baltrus, the chief of Interpretation and Visitor Services, says the plan is still being used as the guide for the management of the park.

"The mission goals of the existing GMP (2001) are still pertinent today and continue to serve as a guiding document for desired conditions related to protection of park resources, the quality of visitor experience, sustainable practices and the fostering of partnerships," Baltrus wrote in an e-mail to The Spectrum & Daily News.

When it comes to the visitor experience, the plan states, "Park managers are taking action to manage use, minimize or avoid resource impacts, and ensure that visitors continue to have the opportunity for high quality experiences."

In the front country of Zion, the area most impacted by the increased visitation numbers, the plan states "There will be few opportunities for solitude, but the social environment will remain uncrowded."

It goes on to say that "Limits will only be placed on the numbers of people to address resource protection concerns or facility design capacities."

It is with those directions in mind that the park service is beginning the planning process to develop a new Visitor Use Management Plan, park officials said.

"The VUMP will address visitor and commercial uses, visitor experience and capacity, and resource conservation," Baltrus wrote. "Through the planning process, the park will gather data and share that information with the public."

The plan will include an environmental assessment and list a range of management alternatives to address visitor use, Baltrus added.

The park service plans to ask for public input on the VUMP.

"The public will have opportunities to be part of the process by identifying visitor use issues that need to be addressed, alternative methods to address those issues, and will have the opportunity to comment on proposed management actions once they have been crafted," Baltrus wrote.

The formal process to develop the VUMP has not started, but Baltrus said the hope is that the process will begin "soon."

But soon isn't nearly soon enough in the minds of some.

"I think there is a breaking point but the problem is, I think they've gone by it," Rodriguez said. "You can only deliver so many people to the front country trails. How crowded can Angels Landing get? If you have an endless stream of people working their way up to the top, how many more can you take? And how do you stop it?"

"I am really not in a position to speak on that except to say that its been an amazing year," said Lyman Hafen, executive director for the Zion Natural History Association. "It's been a fantastic year of visitation and we're just working hard and doing our best in our role with the park service to help enhance the visitors' visit through providing good information."

Hafen said, so far, they've been able to handle the increase in visitation at the visitor center.

"For us, it's manageable and we've been able to handle it. It far exceeded our projections and our expectations this year but we were able to handle it," Hafen said. "We're here and we're open to the whole world and the whole world is coming."

Confidence in the park service's ability to manage the influx of visitors remains high in the business community in Springdale as well.

"There's some pretty smart people in the administration of that park," said Rick Praetzel, the managing partner of the Zion Adventure Company, a guiding service and canyoneering outfitter based in Springdale, "I trust them to sort it all out. I don't think they can fix it in one year, though. It'll take some real planning."

Praetzel said he sees the town of Springdale and his own business working out ways to handle the increase in visitation as well.

"It's what we do every winter. We ask ourselves if we think we can serve more people and how can we change what we're doing to make that possible while still keeping it a pleasant experience for the visitor," he said. "The town has done well to accommodate so far. (Although), there is a restlessness to some degree living in Springdale now compared to five years ago. It is different. Pulling out onto main street, you may have to sit there for two minutes, but the last thing we want is a traffic light in town."

"We recognize the impact Zion National Park's tourism has on Springdale and other local communities. We are and will continue to seek ideas and assistance to issues stemming from the increased visitation," Baltrus wrote. "We will be discussing these possibilities with area and local agencies and governments as we continue our outreach with them. As the VUMP progresses, we will engage all of our audiences actively."

Follow Jud Burkett on Twitter and Instagram @judburkett. Email him at jburkett@thespectrum.com or call him at 435-674-6262.

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