Kolob Canyons, courtesy of the National Park Service.
While the pandemic virtually eliminated tourism last spring, visitor numbers at Zion National Park, like many other parks, soared by summertime as travelers ditched cramped city quarantines for soaring arches and grand mountain peaks. This year, many visited national parks who would not have normally––but, with the pandemic, saw few alternatives.
Amanda Rowland, a public information officer at Zion, said that they have seen an uptick recently in visitors wanting to leave their “mark” during their visit. Although land managers are glad that a broader and more diverse audience is connecting with national parks, crowds have wreaked havoc on invaluable protected lands, tagging ancient rocks and littering parks with their trash.
“Nearly every day, staff find words and shapes, carved, drawn, painted––with mud, dirt, pigment, paint––or scratched on rocks and more recently even carved within moss,” said Rowland.
Land managers say that the uptick in vandalism is driven by a lack of information about public lands and how to properly care for them, as well as chronic lack of funding and short staffing, which has only worsened during the pandemic with strict safety restrictions.
Cory MacNulty, the associate director for the southwest region at the National Parks Conservation Association, said that people tend to mimic others who leave graffiti––if one person tags a spot, others tend to follow suit, until entire walls are covered in markings.
Graffiti at Zion National Park, courtesy of the National Park Service.
“When you have graffiti in areas with just the natural patina, it's going to change that rock face forever––layer on to that cultural resources that have been there for thousands of years,” said MacNulty. “You can never restore those. Those are resources that are lost forever.”
The rise in Zion’s visitor numbers started accelerating in 2013, reflecting a nationwide trend. Before the pandemic, the park saw well over 4 million visitors annually. Yet as more and more people visited the park every year, the staffing at Zion did not keep pace.
Last year started out strong again before the pandemic hit, logging the highest numbers on record for January and February, respectively, before dipping in March and nose diving in April to just 40,000 visitors––a record low for the usually-popular month.
When the pandemic hit, the staff at Zion––already spread thin––was cut. Zion, like other parks, also relies heavily on volunteers, many of whom are older and did not feel safe working during the pandemic, which further diminished their staff.
While the park’s overall visitor numbers dropped substantially in 2020 as a result of the pandemic––by nearly 900,000, down to 3.6 million––the number of monthly visitors in September through December well exceeded those for the same months in 2019. In October, nearly 130,000 more people visited the park in 2020 than in 2019.
Yet managers at Zion still have not been able to hire back their full staff. Those that were left behind during the pandemic have had to contend with record numbers of visitors and have been forced to do more with less. Some have started to leave Zion for smaller, less glamorous parks with lower visitor numbers, where the workload is more manageable.
“Particularly at parks like Zion here in Utah, the staff was spread so thin and just kind of barely getting by,” said MacNulty. “I think they're, you know, honestly, they're probably at the breaking point.”
The first three months of 2021 have already recorded record highs for each of the months of January, February, and March, respectively. Perhaps not fully vaccinated or still wary of air travel, many people are planning trips within the United States this summer, including state and national parks. Land managers expect visitor numbers to continue to break records. Reservations for campgrounds and park tickets are already selling out.
MacNulty says the staff at Zion and the National Parks Conservation Association are hoping for a budget increase of about $200 million.
“There's been a push for years to really reach a broader––and frankly, more diverse––audience for the national parks and outdoor recreation more broadly. It's really great that people are connecting with these outdoor experiences and connecting with the national park,” said MacNulty.
“But what it really means is that we need more resources and more rangers on the ground to be making contact with new visitors, particularly coming in to share information about what a national park experience can be. That's where there's a real opportunity to just share what the possibilities are and then how to really care for the places while they’re there.”
Graffiti at Zion National Park
This ancient rock was defaced in December. Click each dot to learn more about the impact of vandalism at the park.
Graffiti at Zion National Park, courtesy of the National Park Service.
HARMFUL IMPACT
Graffiti degrades national parks from their original condition and tarnishes the experience for others. Vandalism of ancient petroglyphs and pictographs is especially pernicious, as those precious cultural resources have been there for thousands of years and can never be fully restored.
INCREASE IN INCIDENTS
There have been record-breaking numbers of visitors this year, with many first-time tourists coming from urban areas without much knowledge of national parks and how to protect them. Often, when one person leaves graffiti at a spot, more people add on to it and it catches on. Land managers have reported an increase in graffiti and vandalism recently, which has been especially difficult to cope with as many parks remain understaffed and underfunded.
REMOVAL PROCESS
Graffiti and vandalism can be extremely difficult, costly, and time-consuming to remove. Often, it’s impossible to restore ancient rock surfaces to their original state. If you see graffiti, don’t try to remove it yourself––it takes special skills and equipment to remove vandalism without causing more damage. Instead, report it to a ranger.