
The new online reservation system for securing permits in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness that opened and quickly crashed a week ago won't go live until Feb. 19 or later.
U.S. Forest Service representatives announced the date after a meeting Monday between the agency, the reservation system contractor, outfitters and other business people. More meetings are scheduled.
The permit system on the national website recreation.gov failed shortly after it went live Jan. 30, shutting out an untold number of users and creating questions for those who managed to snag permits.
Jason Zabokrtsky of Ely Outfitting Company, who was present Monday, said the meeting over the rollout failure had some answers but left many questions, too. He said representatives from the contractor, Booz Allen Hamilton, tried to explain why the crash occurred, but the explanation was vague.
"They blamed a 'cascading' problem of 'other things,' " Zabokrtsky said in an email to the Star Tribune.
"This raises serious concerns about the contractor's ability to resolve the technical problems for a second attempt at go live," he added.
Zabokrtsky said his group, which included representatives from the congressional offices of Minnesota's Sen. Amy Klobuchar and Rep. Pete Stauber, requested that the Forest Service provide a list of known problems with the system in advance of future meetings.
"It is imperative that these significant problems with the system are fixed ASAP …Frankly, right now we don't have any idea who is actually responsible for the process of implementing a permitting system that works," Zabokrtsky said.