Kingfisher wrote on Oct 16^th, 2010 at 1:31am:

Arctic wrote on Oct 16th, 2010 at 12:27am: I sent mine in weeks ago and made many comments.  I'm pretty convinced that we will be seeing designated campsites very soon, road access via the Wawiag River, and outfitting services oriented toward Atikokan area businesses. Why is that? Do you know what all of our comments have been or something else we should know?

I met a group of junior rangers on Mc Dougall Lake this summer.  They were in the process of documenting with GPS every campsite in Quetico.  My impression from talking with them is that there will eventually be designated campsites in Quetico.

For those of you who think that public opinion always drives decision making, you should recalibrate.  Public input is often just a formality.

Establishing designated sites in Quetico would not be the end of the world, as countless sites have been there for centuries.  Rarely is there a need to cut a campsite.  There are quite a few sites on small islands that should be closed, and requiring the use of designated sites would enable that.

While I can understand higher user fees for the southern entry points, as they are probably more expensive to operate, I've never liked the disparity between "Resident Canadians" and "non-Residents".  I see plenty of Canadians visiting US national parks, but they pay the same fees that everyone else does, which seems fair.

As for aircraft access and outfitting being geared toward Atikokan area businesses, that's fine.  It's an Ontario park and support for the preservation of Quetico (and other parks) needs to come from local businesses.

For decades its been Ely and Gunflint Trail area outfitters who have benefited the most from Quetico.  Frankly, there are probably too many outfitters competing for the number of clients available in that mostly seasonal business, anyway.