First meeting on VNP reservations brings range of input

Meetings are also scheduled for 5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. at VNP Headquarters Tuesday and Thursday.

Voyageurs Superintendent Mike Ward said the first meeting went well and was attended by park users from Minneapolis and St. Paul. In addition, he said several local users from the Kabetogama and Crane Lake areas were also in attendance. Ward noted that no one in attendance at the first meeting appeared to be from the International Falls area.

“The discussions went very well,” Ward reported this week. “There was nobody that was directly against what we we’re proposing.”

The discussions surround implementing a campsite reservation system and an amenity fee program. Discussions also include charging for campsite use by night to ensure future maintenance and upkeep of the sites.

A plan for interior campsites and boats on the Kabetogama Peninsula will also be finalized based on comments received over the last few years. Day-use sites will not be included in these discussions. 

Ward said most people attending the first meeting voiced concerns about how the reservation plan would operate and would affect their use of the park.

“With a lot of different types of users in the room, all had different concerns,” said Ward. “While no one was directly against it, their concerns and their questions of the process did not make it easy to determine they were for it, either.”

Ward said “the difficult, hard questions that were asked were easy to answer, in the sense we’ve been through a lot with staff trying to get to the point where we understand how each type of user would be concerned.”

Ward said the first meeting offered great discussion, which is what park officials had hoped for in the meetings and public engagement as park officials attempt to determine if users are ready for this type of system.

For park staff, the most interesting comments at the first meeting encouraged the park to implement an annual boat or snowmobile sticker as an entrance fee designation. He said that idea was dropped a few years ago when loud opposition to the idea was voiced.

“For us, that’s fascinating because last time everybody said ‘don’t do this,’ and now they say it would be much easier if they had an annual boat or snowmobile sticker,” he said.

“We did hear the range of no reservations, reservations, no fees to boat stickers,” added Ward. “Everybody is trying to figure how this affects them and give us the opportunity to work on the system a little bit.”

Ward said no concerns were voiced about the interior lakes and boats, but were more concerned about the houseboat and campsites.

Ward said a presentation on the reservation proposal has been given to the Kabetogama Convention and Visitor Bureau. “They are all for it and ready for it,” he said.

Ward said besides the four meetings, people will have other opportunities to provide their comments on the proposal.

Park officials have created a phone number — 218-283-6708 — for members of the public to call to express concerns or support for the reservations and costs for campsites.

In addition, Ward provided his email address — michael_ward@nps.gov — for people to provide comment about the proposal.

Ward said he plans to address the Koochiching and St. Louis county boards in October about the proposal, and plans to bring the proposal to Orr and Crane Lake area residents in meetings that have not yet been scheduled. Meetings about the proposal will also be scheduled for the Minneapolis-St. Paul area and Duluth.

“We’re really trying to reach out to as many people as we can to see how people are feeling,” he said.

Meanwhile, a National Park Service moratorium on fees in national parks may also play a role in whether the proposal moves forward.

Some parks, he said, have been given an exemption from the director of the National Park Service, and Voyageurs was given an exemption to discuss the proposal.

“Even if we say everybody’s online and we can start doing it, the director could say no, based on the economy and that type of thing,” said Ward.

Ward said Voyageurs was given an exemption to discuss the proposal because it had begun to explore the proposal publicly a few years ago and there aren’t many other parks that have sites similar to those in Voyageurs that are not using a reservation and fee system.

Discussions about implementing a reservation system began prior to 2010 when the park first proposed to charge fees and implement a reservation system for campsites and boats on the interior lakes, and modifying tour boat fees.

“We had to finish,” Ward said. “We couldn’t stop the discussion. We had comments, emails, phone calls when we started to look at the reservation system, so we have to finish the discussion.”