REGIONAL— With most lakes in the Boundary Waters now clearing of ice, the official paddling season is just getting underway. Yet, as canoeists begin to arrive in the North Country, the Kawishiwi Ranger District— long the busiest permitting station serving the BWCAW— will no longer issue permits for overnight camping within the wilderness.
Forest Service spokesperson Joy Vandrie was not allowed to respond to questions regarding the rationale for the change. But outfitters who had spoken to forest service officials indicated that the change is due to budget cuts.
With the change, the burden of issuing wilderness permits will now fall to local outfitters, known as “cooperators” in forest service parlance. Most cooperators have been issuing Boundary Waters permits for years, although in considerably fewer numbers than what they can anticipate starting this weekend, now that the overnight quota season is underway.
“It’s a little hard to know how much of an impact it will have on us,” said Drew Brockett, outfitting manager at Piragis Northwoods Co. in Ely. As one of the largest and best-known outfitters in the Ely area, Piragis already issues about 1,500 permits a year, either to customers being outfitted or other Boundary Waters users who are looking for an alternative pick-up location. Brockett said those looking to get an early start often prefer the 6 a.m. opening at Piragis over the 8 a.m. start at the Kawishiwi District office.
He said he doesn’t view the change as a major hassle, but notes that Piragis will likely need to train more employees in the permit issuing process, which takes about 20 minutes to complete since permit holders are required to watch a video about reducing their wilderness impact among other steps. “It’s for sure going to be a burden, but how much of a burden is TBD,” said Brockett.
Considering that the Kawishiwi office anticipated issuing about 3,800 permits this summer, that’s more than 1,250 hours of staff time that Ely area outfitters will now need to absorb, some a lot more than others. While the cooperators are allowed to charge $2 for each permit they issue, Jason Zabokrtsky of the Ely Outfitting Co. said most don’t charge since the time it takes to collect the modest fee isn’t worth it. Zabokrtsky said his company has typically issued permits solely for his outfitting customers so the sudden decision will require some quick adjustments.
Zabokrtsky said outfitters would have benefitted from more notice of the change. Most were informed April 23, with just a week to go until the start of the season. While the forest service had discussed the possibility of ending permit issuing on weekends, Zabokrtsky said this was the first he had heard that they were going to end issuing permits altogether. He said forest service staff made it clear that the decision was not something that had been in the works but was the result “of recent events.”
He said some outfitters may have to put on extra staff to make sure that permit issuing doesn’t conflict with their service to their outfitting clients.
Zabokrtsky said some of the outfitters that have large retail operations in addition to outfitting could benefit from the change, as it might bring more foot traffic into their stores.
“We hope they’ll come into the store,” agreed Brockett, since Piragis operates a large retail facility at the corner of Sheridan St. and Central Ave. But he notes that the outfitting portion of the business is located outside in back of the store, so it’s unclear how many of those customers will come into the store once they’re loaded up and ready to go.
Perhaps surprisingly, the change doesn’t affect every ranger district on the Superior. Wilderness users will still be able to pick up BWCAW overnight permits at the LaCroix office in Cook and the Laurentian district office in Aurora. They can also pick up their permit at either the Superior headquarters in Duluth or at the district office in Tofte. Those communities don’t have outfitters or other cooperators that can provide the alternative pick-up location.
A hassle for users
The sudden change will require those who had planned to pick up permits at the Kawishiwi or Gunflint district offices to go back to recreation.gov and select a new permit pick-up location. The forest service was supposed to be sending out emails ahead of May 1 to those who had indicated plans to pick up permits at the two district offices, notifying them of the need to select a new location.
“It’s a lot of impacted groups,” said Zabokrtsky.
More changes ahead?
The decision to end BWCAW permit issuing on the Superior’s busiest two ranger districts caught some outfitters by surprise and left them wondering what might be next. “Managing and issuing Boundary Waters permits has always been a core function of the forest service,” said Zabokrtsky. “Delegating that core function seems really significant, makes me wonder what other core functions could change in the future.”
Zabokrtsky noted that the forest service doesn’t have many opportunities to engage face-to-face with wilderness users, except for when a wilderness user comes to pick up a permit. “It’s a significant change to no longer have that opportunity,” he said.
The experience of Boundary Waters users could also change. Forest service officials have told outfitters that their focus of their efforts in the wilderness this year would be on “health and safety” rather than on portage clearing and campsite protection. How that change in focus will impact the wilderness experience remains to be seen.