BWCA permit reservation system crashes on opening day

It couldn’t have gone much worse.

That is the sentiment being expressed by both user groups and federal officials after permits for the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness went on sale Jan. 30 to the public through the national recreation reservation system.  Soon after the permit reservation process opened, many users were not able to access the reservation system. 

The Recreation.gov team, both agency and contractor staff, soon discovered a problem with how the national system servers were distributing the traffic to the website, which resulted in the inability of many visitors to make reservations. Several people were successful in making reservations for permits while others could not access the system at all, according to a news release sent to WTIP shortly after the crash.

Once the Forest Service became aware of the situation Wednesday, the decision was made to interrupt the sale of BWCA permits. Superior National Forest staff worked closely with the contractor over the past year, including time during the recent government furlough, with the intent of having the system ready for Jan. 30. Within a short period of time it became evident the system was not ready, a concern expressed by many BWCA user groups leading up to the change.

There is currently no timeframe for when the site will start working.

WTIP reached out to Ely resident Nancy McReady of the nonprofit Conservationists with Common Sense, about her frustrations with the new permit system. Here's Rhonda Silence with more.