ST. GEORGE — Four significant projects aimed at protecting and improving public lands in Southern Utah and Northern Arizona are underway for the Zion National Park Forever Project group.

While the nonprofit supports small to large undertakings, this year the spotlight is on restoring the Pine Valley Ranger Station and the Brian Head Peak Overlook, the new Cedar Breaks Visitor Center and the soon-to-be-built Zion Discovery Center.

Tiffany Stouffer, the director of development at the Zion National Park Forever Project, told St. George News they are thrilled with new agreements with the Dixie National Forest for two projects. The agencies will work together on the restoration of the two stations.

“There’s this little old Forest Service historic building. It has the most adorable shutters with little pine trees on them,” Stouffer said. “It’s a great spot. We are entering into an agreement with the Dixie National Forest, and we will be operating a new retail location there, which will help support our group’s mission.”

The Zion National Park Forever Project is the nonprofit partner of Zion National Park and both Cedar Breaks and Pipe Spring national monuments. The organization has three pillars of project support: improving today, informing tomorrow and protecting forever.

Part of the group’s mission concerns projects that inform tomorrow’s generation. Stouffer said education projects are a core part of Zion Forever’s mission to create the next generation of public land stewards.

Examples include the Junior Ranger and Concrete to Canyons programs, which bring students from Nevada to Utah to experience public lands. Locally, the group helps coordinate sending park rangers to visit school classrooms.

The second legacy project that Zion Forever is coordinating with the Forest Service is the Brian Head Overlook Fire Tower Restoration Project. The 1930s building’s roof blew off during a snowstorm.

The third anticipated endeavor is the new Cedar Breaks National Monument Visitor Center. Stouffer said they are lucky to have secured funding through various sources, including the federal government, the Iron County Tourism Board, known as Visit Cedar City-Brian Head. She said the center will open as soon as the snow melts and a grand opening will be held toward the end of the summer.

“We’re really excited to have finally have those new visitor centers open to greet visitors from around the world. So, we’d love to have people from the local community go up and explore Cedar Breaks this next season because it’s a fantastic park. It’s a little bit more local,” Stouffer said. “It’s a little bit more secluded because it’s at the top of a mountain.”

Stouffer said visitors can participate in special activities in Cedar Break’s Alpine wilderness, such as the Wildflower Festival in July, night sky programming year-round and snowshoe hikes in the winter.

“Cedar Breaks is just an outstanding outdoor recreation space that’s very different from Zion National Park,” Stouffer said. “When you think of Zion, you think of the big red cliffs and hot desert hikes. Up in Cedar, you’re surrounded by forest, but you still get to enjoy some of those majestic red rock views and canyons because it is at the top of the Colorado Plateau.”

The fourth project has also been long coming. The new Zion Discovery Center involves many groups coming together.

“We’re also doing big things on the East side of Zion National Park. We’re working in collaboration with many stakeholders, tribal partners, Kane County, and others to help with the Zion Discovery Center,” Stouffer said.

The counter broke ground in August of 2023. The site will allow visitors to explore Zion National Park in a previously unavailable space.

“Because it exists outside the park’s borders, we’re able to do some things uniquely to the site, including having mountain bike trails, which we secured through funding from the State of Utah’s Division of Outdoor Recreation,” Stouffer said. “We will also have outdoor playscapes that are interactive and bring the local storytelling elements, not only from the local pioneers, but from the tribes who have lived here since time immemorial and the use of water and plants, and the importance of that in the region, the history of agriculture, bringing all those elements together to make a new site that celebrates the uniqueness of the East Side of Zion National Park.”

Construction on the road as they’re installing a roundabout is currently ongoing. The building will take shape throughout next season.

“We’re optimistic and excited to have so many different stakeholders coming together to make a place for locals to rediscover their parks and to expand and create that balance of conservation and development in a sustainable, thought-out, practiced way,” Stouffer said.

Zion Forever brought together people like local landowners together with the federal government.

“It’s been a long time coming. And we’re excited to see it flourish over the next few seasons with a hopeful opening date of that site in 2025,” Stouffer said.

The need for additional visitor services was identified in the Park Service’s work plan in the 1980s. Stouffer added that while the need has always existed, the ability and infrastructure to execute that need haven’t.

The group’s conservation approach, including putting this land into protective easements with assistance from the many stakeholders, also protects wildlife.

“We’re making sure there are migration corridors there for some of the large game animals, including mule deer and bighorn sheep, which are so iconic in Zion,” Stouffer said. “There’s also mountain lions that live there and the Mexican spotted owl.”

Another benefit of the land partnership around the Zion Discover Center is the organization can help protect the watershed. Stouffer noted that there’s water that feeds into the Virgin River there. So, they ensure that whatever is undertaken is done correctly with sustainability practices in mind, awareness, and focus on conservation.

Stouffer added that the public can get involved in helping preserve and connect to public lands. To learn more about ongoing projects, visit zionpark .org. Or follow their social media, Instagram, and Facebook and sign up for the newsletter on the website.

“Zion Forever will also be releasing its ongoing progress reports from some of the work we’re doing. And then we will also have our newest book of solutions, which we call our field guide, coming out next month,” Stouffer said. “So things like cultural resources, as small as preserving a specific seed species for a plant up to protecting massive chunks of land. So it varies, but we do a lot of work to help make these places an environment for everyone and welcome them into our public lands that we are lucky to have here in Southern Utah and Northern Arizona.”

Photo Gallery

The Pine Valley Ranger Station was built in the 1930's and is one of the restoration projects underway by the Zion National Park Forever Project., Pine Valley, Utah | Photo courtesy of the Zion National Park Forever Project

Sign next to the Pine Valley Ranger Station was built in the 1930's and is one of the restoration projects underway by the Zion National Park Forever Project., Pine Valley, Utah | Photo courtesy of the Zion National Park Forever Project

Pine Valley Ranger Station was built in the 1930's and is one of the restoration projects underway by the Zion National Park Forever Project., Pine Valley, Utah | Photo courtesy of the Zion National Park Forever Project

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