Superior National Forest officials say they won’t be hiring temporary seasonal workers next summer, citing budgetary restrictions for 2025.

The federal agency will hire limited numbers of seasonal staff, most of them people to fight fires, but temporary summer hires for all other roles — like maintaining portages, digging latrines, issuing permits, and upkeep at campsites in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness — will be on hold.

The financial woes are not unique to Superior National Forest. It’s a nationwide issue for the Forest Service, according to Tom Hall, the forest supervisor for Superior National Forest, which includes the entire BWCA Wilderness.

“This is not a Superior National Forest issue,” Hall said during an Oct. 15 meeting of the Cook County Board of Commissioners in Grand Marais. “This is not an Eastern region issue. This is a Forest Service issue. And so, we are just reflecting that across the agency.”

Hall said some of the financial issues the Forest Service is facing have already surfaced locally, with the Gunflint and Tofte ranger stations reducing their hours this year. That situation will only intensify in 2025, Hall said.

“There will be limited hours, if not closures, in some of our offices on how we’re staffing the front desk,” Hall said.

As a result, cooperators, many of them outfitters who rent canoes and other gear to people who paddle into the Boundary Waters, will have to issue more permits next year if the Tofte Ranger Station is unable to do so, according to the forest supervisor.

“That shifts that burden onto those other cooperators to help us to accomplish permit issuance for the Boundary Waters,” Hall said.

Looking ahead to the 2025 paddling season, if seasonal backcountry staff are absent from the BWCA Wilderness it could dramatically impact the visitor experience, Hall acknowledged.

“How do we make sure that we’re doing the right thing out on the land, in the Boundary Waters, with digging latrines and cleaning portages and any of those other sorts of services?” Hall said. “And so how do we meet those critical needs, knowing that we don’t want to close the Boundary Waters?”

In a recent update, Chief Randy Moore said that the Forest Service was planning its budget for 2025 with the idea of “a potentially budget-limited future” after previous legislation provided additional funding and pay raises for firefighters.

Moore said that consideration, combined with expiring supplemental funding from the Inflation Reduction Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, along with multiple cost of living increases, means that the Forest Service will have challenging times ahead, at least financially speaking. 

Paddle and Portage will report on this topic extensively throughout the rest of the year and into the start of the 2025 paddling season. We’ll be speaking with Forest Service personnel, numerous outfitters who provide services to the Boundary Waters, and visitors who travel across the most visited wilderness in the nation.

Listen to the audio below to hear Superior National Forest Supervisor Tom Hall speak about this topic during a work session of the Cook County Board of Commissioners Oct. 15.

Support this type of journalism from and about the Boundary Waters by becoming a member of Paddle and Portage.