As Congress approaches the end of the fiscal year without a bipartisan agreement to fund the government, the Outdoor Recreation Roundtable is warning of the significant and lasting damage a shutdown would have on America’s $1.2 trillion outdoor recreation economy, its 5 million strong workforce, and the hundreds of thousands of businesses and rural communities that rely on access and certainty.
“The administration and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle must do everything in their power to avoid a government shutdown,” said Jessica Turner, president of the Outdoor Recreation Roundtable.
“Shutdowns — and even the threat of them — harm the outdoor recreation economy, close off public lands and waters, and inflict financial hardship and uncertainty on businesses, workers, and local communities who are already dealing with numerous challenges.”
The group warned of the looming consequences:
- Impacts to businesses and economy: The outdoor recreation economy contributes $1.2 trillion annually. Outdoor recreation has grown 36% in real terms since 2012. Shutdowns cut into this growth and those losses can’t be recovered as these businesses and gateway communities are not paid back.
- Impacts to local communities: According to new data released by the National Park Service, national park visitor spending alone contributed $56 billion to the U.S. economy in 2024. Small towns, particularly those in rural areas, that depend on public land visitation lose vital revenue, putting jobs, health care and housing at risk.
- Impacts to land and water: Without staff, trash piles up, basic maintenance halts, permits aren’t issued and clean-up costs increase — risking long-term harm to our natural resources and wildlife. Additionally, important projects like those supported by the Great American Outdoors Act are stalled and cost more to stop and restart.
- Impacts to visitors and safety: Closures and reduced services disrupt long-planned family trips during fall or winter travel season, with safety risks and cascading costs from canceled flights and lodging and the potential these families will not “risk” another trip to our public lands in the future.
“Congress must act decisively to avoid a shutdown and adequately fund and staff the agencies that manage and provide access to our public lands and waters — this is essential to the health and well-being of the nation,” Turner added.
“Short-term fixes aren’t enough. We need long-term, reliable funding to ensure certainty for businesses and communities and to support innovation and protect access that drives this thriving sector.”
Local effects
“The state of Utah has committed to funding the national parks,” said Barbara Bruno, Springdale’s mayor. Springdale is the gateway community for Utah’s most visited national park — Zion.
Bruno said the city is in a watch and wait situation.
“We do not expect a huge impact. The national parks, the state of Utah and the city of Springdale do not want to see it closed.”
She added the transient room tax that is assessed generates a quarter of the income in Washington County.
“We are an important player in the county,” she added.
A new National Park Service report shows that nearly 2.4 million visitors to parks of the Southeast Utah Group in 2024 spent $421.9 million in communities near the park. That spending had a cumulative benefit to the local economy of $447 million.
That is huge for rural Utah, but as they say, the state has been there, done that, and this is not its first experience with federal disputes over budget issues.
In 2014, during the federal government’s hiatus, the National Park Service entered into agreements with the governments of six states — Utah, Arizona, Colorado, New York, South Dakota and Tennessee — to reopen and temporarily operate 14 park units. The rest remained closed.
Utah was the first state to enter into the agreement, rolling on a political momentum that began with the gateway communities, filtered up to a push by county government urging the parks to stay open and ultimately leading to Utah Gov. Gary Herbert negotiating the parks’ reopening with the Interior Department.
A near showdown with the federal government had some tourist-starved towns on the fringe of initiating action on their own, and nine counties declared local emergencies because of the economic upheaval.
Bruno said a meeting was planned Tuesday with the National Park Service and the U.S. Department of Interior to reach an agreement or compromise.
National parks and Utah have a symbiotic relationship, and communities have stepped up to help.
As an example, in an effort to address the $60 million backlog in unfunded repairs and improvements at Zion, the Zion National History Association — long a nonprofit partner of the park — reinvented itself as the Zion National Park Forever Project.
Its founders and backers say the stewardship efforts aim to be a model for the rest of the country by identifying specific park needs and promoting community “engagement” through fundraising, in-kind donations or volunteer work.
The Utah Office of Tourism is working diligently to keep the state’s national parks open and vibrant for the millions of visitors that come every year and hence support local communities.
“They stay in our hotels, they eat in our restaurants. They hire local people. They support the Utah dream,” said Anna Loughridge, spokesman for the organization.
“Our office is committed to making sure we are preserving the visitor experience, preserving local economies, and quite literally (these parks) are supporting local economies that depend on visitation.“
She added that the state’s relationship with national parks and public lands is vital.
“Ultimately, we are shaping a Utah that will last. It matters.”