Greetings,

this off-topic email concerns Voyageurs National Park in northern Minnesota and those paddlers who enjoy kayak camping there. The national park service is nearing the end of a 3 yr planning process to implement a campsite reservation system at VNP, which would require us to identify a specific campsite and date(s) in order to camp. Currently, VNP is a first come - first served park which generally works well for us. They're considering this reservation system to raise much needed revenue (understandably - as the park charges no entrance or camping fees and budgets have been frozen for a long time) and to minimize peak season complaints from folks who have travelled up there and are unable to find a campsite. Again, understandable.

However, as we all know, the wind/waves/weather often dictates our schedule and route, so a specific site/schedule could be impossible to achieve, forcing us to either cancel in the first place or return home. We have communicated these concerns to the park personnel, and asked thet they instead consider a permitting system similar to the neighboring bwca - purchasing a permit allows access thru a specific put-in at specific dates, but does not force specific sites. A water trail is another possibility but with no budget, unlikely to happen.

If you're interested, please contact the below VNP person to express an opinion.

Tawnya Lee Schoewe
Chief of Intepreters
Voyageurs National Park
tawnya_schoewe@nps.gov

Note that Tawnya is heading up this initiative, and is sympathetic to our concerns, but as VNP is mostly used by fishermen/power boats, we paddlers are a very small minority.