Stauber Statement on the Delayed Relaunch of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Reservation System

HERMANTOWN, MN – Congressman Pete Stauber (MN-08) released the following statement after the United States Forest Service (USFS) announced they would be delaying the relaunch of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area (BWCA) reservation system by another week.

"When the BWCA reservation system crashed last month, my office was inundated with calls and messages from folks who were worried about the impact the system failure would have on their businesses and the local economy," said Stauber. "Their concerns are legitimate, and I have stated many times that the USFS must quickly rectify this problem. While I understand and appreciate that the USFS wants the relaunch of this new reservation system to be a successful one, we are another week closer to the busy season at the BWCA. I am concerned this delay will compound the damaging failures by recreation.gov already endured by our local economy in Northeastern Minnesota."

Recreation.gov crashed January 30th following the USFS decision to move away from the successful lottery system. The USFS stated that the relaunch of the BWCA system would be February 27th. Citing continuation of "website testing and conducting training with cooperators," the USFS announced that the relaunch date has been changed to March 4th.

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