For the fifth consecutive year, the number of people cancelling a permit to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness continued to climb, according to a new report from the U.S. Forest Service.

Cancellations of BWCA Wilderness permits reached an all-time high of 12,096, the Forest Service announced in the report, which was released this week. The report includes data from 2025 and the past five years of BWCA Wilderness visitation.

The Forest Service report shows that cancellations have more than doubled in five years, suggesting that BWCA Wilderness visitors continue to reserve more permits than they can use, according to the federal agency.

“Analysis indicates excessive reservations during the permit on sale, with rising last-minute cancellations and no-shows,” a report summary from the Forest Service reads. “In 2025, over 40 percent of on-sale reservations were never used, and cancellations and no-shows increased while the number of quota permits issued remained constant.”

A canceled permit for the BWCA Wilderness is one that is booked and then released back into the system. The majority, nearly 70 percent, of cancellations in 2025 occurred less than 30 days before the entry date for the permit. The previous high for cancellations, 11,244, was set in 2024, meaning that over 850 more permits were canceled last year than the previous record high.

A “no-show” means a permit is booked but never issued or utilized. Sometimes people book a permit and forget to cancel it. There’s also the notion of “permit hoarding,” where some BWCA paddlers and outfitters believe people intentionally book a permit and never intend to use it. There were 3,674 no-shows last year specific to BWCA Wilderness permits.

Entrance to Sawtooth Outfitters in Tofte. File photo by Joe Friedrichs

As we’ve previously reported, some outfitters and paddlers say the process the Forest Service uses for people to book permits is to blame, at least in part, for the high number of cancellations. Having one day unofficially dedicated to book permits for the entire quota season is a significant part of the problem, many believe. The last Wednesday of January is the first day BWCA permits are available for the upcoming quota season. There’s a false notion that everyone who wants to visit the Boundary Waters needs to book a permit that day, leading to a frenzy of people booking permits they may or may not use months later.

The quota permit season runs from May 1 to Sept. 30. The permits are required for overnight trips only. Day-use permits do not need to be booked in advance. Permit reservations made on the last Wednesday in January have more than doubled during the past five years, according to a previous Forest Service report.

Overall, the number of people who actually visited the BWCA Wilderness in 2025 declined over the year before. The Forest Service says 148,687 people visited the BWCA Wilderness in 2025, down nearly 1,000 from 2024.

Not surprisingly, given that the Gunflint and Ely ranger stations did not issue permits last year, the issuing responsibility for BWCA permits largely fell on outfitters and other BWCA cooperators in 2025. Of the 26,461 quota permits issued last year, more than 24,000 came from commercial issuing stations (outfitters and other businesses). Only 2,402 came from the Forest Service itself, with the Tofte Ranger Station issuing a majority of those.

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