Potential fee hike for Boundary Waters trips has campers wondering: How much is too much?

Ben Strege helps get people into the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.

But after the news Monday that trip fees there could substantially increase, the part-time wilderness guide said he couldn’t help wonder how many paddlers it might deter in the years ahead.

A new Forest Service proposal would more than double the fees for adults and children, generating debate and ideas about how canoe campers should pay to visit the wilderness.

Fees into the BWCAW, in the Superior National Forest, haven’t increased since 2008. The price would increase from $16 to $40 per trip for adults and $8 to $20 for youth starting in 2027, the agency said Monday in an outline of the proposal.

The plan comes at a period when federal and state land managers in Minnesota continue to make access to the outdoors a priority. Still, a Forest Service spokesperson said Tuesday that more money is needed for everything from filling ranger vacancies to rehabbing BWCAW entry points and portages, to hand-digging latrines at hundreds of campsites. The maintenance backlog is estimated at more than $11 million.

“These proposed fees will go right back to the resource, to maintain public access and safety, as well as ensure the preservation and enhancement of the wilderness,” spokesperson Joy Liptak VanDrie said.

The agency considered fees for comparable trips in the region, she said.

“Market comparisons of neighboring Quetico Provincial Park and Voyageurs National Park found that visitors pay two to three times more than those visiting the BWCAW,” Liptak VanDrie added.

Strege, a college teacher from Duluth, runs a website called PaddlePlanner.com that helps users arrange their BWCAW trips. Its creation led to his occasional work as a guide for a few Ely outfitters. He also frequently takes personal trips with his two boys.

While current trip fees seem almost too cheap for such a remarkable outdoors experience, Strege said the prospect of a significant increase is worrisome.

One of his concerns, he said, is that increases will put off local paddlers who live near the wilderness and are more apt to take frequent trips.

He prefers to see an increase in the nonrefundable fee when reserving a permit. Perhaps it would help, he said, with a different issue: the rush to hoard first-come, first-serve permits during the quota season from May through September. The forest agency cut available permits by 13% in 2022. Canceled permits have more than doubled over the last several years, according to the agency — a sign, some people say, that people are overbooking.

Liptak VanDrie said that by law, at least 80% of recreation fees are used for management of the Superior National Forest.

Dave Seaton, who runs Hungry Jack Outfitters off the Gunflint Trail, said he knew the agency was considering a fee hike and considers it a reasonable request. He said that the Forest Service “has been massively underfunded for a while, at least as far as recreation goes.”

“Forty dollars for a five-day trip? I’d say that is a pretty cheap deal,” Seaton added. “It doesn’t even get you into Disney World.”

Strege wants more details about the proposal, and said he is hoping to attend one of the upcoming public meetings. In-person meetings are planned at the ranger offices July 14 in Ely, Minn., and July 22 in Grand Marais, Minn. There also is a virtual meeting July 15.

The public also can submit comments until Sept. 2. Meeting and comment details are available on the Superior National Forest website .

When the time comes, Strege might reconsider a trip with his boys, ages 15 and 11, given how often he is in the wilderness. To date, he’s taken 80 trips.

Will the extra expense of taking his kids give him pause?

“It might,” he said.