Outfitters seek delay in BWCAW permit lottery demise

[Lee Borgersen]

Outfitters seek delay in BWCAW permit lottery demise



Although not contentious, a meeting Tuesday between Forest Service officials and Ely area outfitters and businesses that issue permits showed a definite difference of opinion.

The central issue is the Forest Service's plan to eliminate the lottery system for BWCAW permits.

Kawishiwi District Ranger Mark Van Every explained the reasons for the change and fielded questions.

The Forest Service sent out letters to cooperators and people who applied for a permit in 2011. There was no press release or other public notification of the change.

The issue centers around high interest permit areas, including Moose Lake and specifically day use motor permits.

Van Every said the Forest Service has found people abusing the system, including one person who reserved 17 day use motor permits for one week "yet that can use only seven."

He said less than five percent of over 100 outfitters have expressed concern over eliminating the lottery.

"Most folks say why have a lottery, we don't need it. Why get rid of it? One, it doesn't serve most of most of the users...and two it really pertains to a small type of use in a small geographic area," said Van Every.

John Schiefelbein, owner of Pine Point Lodge and North Country Canoe Outfitters, said the process has been flawed.

"The way you've gone about it and I say you collectively, I think is a real slap in the face to the word cooperator," said Schiefelbein.

"I think the back door way in which you've handled this is extremely poor. The system has flaws, your list indicates that. At best there's some considerations that have to be addressed but the way you went about it is wrong, we all knew it and you should know it," said Schiefelbein.

He disputed Van Every's five percent figure of outfitters who still wanted a lottery. He asked for a show of hands for people who have concerns and a majority raised their hands.

"I think your numbers are flawed once again," said Schiefelbein.

Instead of a six-week lottery application period, the Forest Service would allow all permits to be given out in a first-come, first-serve system either online or by phone starting Jan. 25.

Van Every said two changes being implemented will eliminate overbooking for all day use motor quotas and allow cancelled day use motor permits to be put back into the system for immediate use.

He said a proposal to allow users to print their own permits has been put on indefinite hold.

Van Every said due to federal budget cuts, he is looking at ways to cut down on the hours the Forest Service offices are open to issue permits.

"When we cut back on hours that pushes that workload onto you. We don't really want to make our problem your problem," said Van Every.

Van Every said half of the BWCAW permits are issued by the Forest Service, the other half are issued by cooperators.

Gary Gotchnik at Wilderness Outfitters said he believes cooperators would love to have people come in to get their permit.

"That was the whole intention, to get them in to sell them a Rapala or a map. We'd love them in our establishments," said Gotchnik.

Kerry Davis of White Iron Beach Resort asked for a show of hands on which cooperators do not want more people coming to their business. No hands were raised.

Van Every said there were cooperators in the room who had complained to him about the Forest Service cutting back on hours.

Permits by the numbers

Van Every said there are 35,000 permits issued for the BWCAW for an average of 250,000 visitors.

"An average of 6,600 permits have been reserved through the lottery over the past five years, of those approximately half, 3,330 were for day use or overnight motor permits and 3,270 were for overnight paddle permits.

"About 99 percent of the overnight and day use motor permits reserved through the lottery were for Basswood Lake or the Moose chain. And 99 percent of the unsuccessful lottery applications are for overnight motor or day use motor permits. That means they were all for the Moose chain and Basswood.

"Over the past five years, 99 percent of all lottery applications for overnight paddle were filled successfully, last year out of 3,100 permits reserved in the lottery, only 28 were denied," said Van Every.

He said around 28,400 permits are still available after the lottery is drawn. The ones that are gone are the motor permits for Basswood and Moose.

"However, 27 percent of the reservations made by cooperators for day use motor permits to Basswood and 30 percent for the Moose chain were not used at all in 2010. That means almost a third of the permits reserved in the lottery didn't get used at all.

"Part of the reason this is happening is people are submitting a very large number of applications because they don't know if they're going to be successful in the lottery.

"And once they are successful the permits aren't being cancelled. So they're not available for anybody else to use and consequently it contributes to the perception of the scarcity of permits," said Van Every.

There could be changes to the proposal to eliminate the lottery. That includes keeping it for another year.

A key decision point will be after a test is conducted to see if the system can handle the requests along with whether Ely's phone and internet capabilities can handle the load.

Other possible changes:

• Moving up the Jan. 25 date to a day earlier in the month.

• Phased first-come, first-served served system involving motor permits with the permit availability staggered over two or more days.

• Consider doing a lottery just for the Moose chain and the Basswood entry points.

Van Every said ReserveAmerica, the system that processes BWCAW permits, also handles Yosemite National Park.

"For Yosemite they do in one hour what we usually have in our entire lottery," said Van Every.

Final decisions haven't been made yet and Van Every cited the Pagami Creek Fire as reason for the short notice on the changes.

Schiefelbein said that was another reason to slow down the process.

"I think you should put this on hold and have a real stakeholder input on this and implement a year from now. The system works, if it ain't broke, don't screw with it," said Schiefelbein.

Dan Waters of Canadian Waters Outfitting said he had the "perfect solution" to the Forest Service not having enough manpower to issue permits.

"Do what they've done out west and make it mandatory that the public go through a cooperator to get their permits," said Waters. "You don't have to issue them at the visitor center. The cooperators are more than capable and more than willing to go through all of the educational process. "

Davis advocated making the deposit for a permit more than $6 "to make it worthwhile for that person to cancel their permit."

Van Every said the Forest Service has looked at options to provide a deterrent to not cancelling a permit but has not come up with anything.

Bob LaTourell of LaTourell's Moose Lake Outfitters said part of the motor permit problem has to do with the Chain of Lakes lawsuit where the Forest Service gave up fighting the Friends of the Boundary Waters.

Prior to 1999, homeowners and resort owners on Moose, South Farm and Saganaga lakes were issued a sticker for their boats to allow them access into BWCAW lakes that could be reached by motorboat without portaging.

In 2002, the Forest Service decided to increase the number of permits to take into account the use from boats with the stickers.

The permit level was 538 per year for Moose Lake. The Forest Service determined there was a demand of 14,796 for those permits and changed the permit level to 2,895.

The Friends sued again and in 2007 the Forest Service attempted to determine if there was additional information that could help calculate average actual annual motorboat use in 1976, 1977, and 1978 as directed by the court.

But the court ruled the information was not accurate enough and the Forest Service was not able to identify any new or more accurate information,

In April of 2011, the Forest Service stopped pursuing the issue in court.

"There are permits that you have said should be in the system that are not there," said LaTourell. "That's a big part of the problem that corresponds with permits being hard to get."

Van Every agreed the numbers are not where they should be for motor permits on Moose and Basswood, but acknowledged the courts have not sided with the Forest Service.

Sue Duffy, who now works out of the Forest Service offices in Duluth, said information on the proposed changes will be on the agency's website and confirmed the public was not notified.

"In hindsight maybe we should have sent out a news release," said Duffy.

Steve Koschak of River Point Resort and Outfitting asked if cooperators could be allowed access to permits two weeks before the public.

"To answer your question, no," said Van Every. "We haven't given that thought and the reason is we're trying to make sure the system is fair to everybody."