Geofence Mobile Application Process will be in place this spring
information released
Photo above: Hopeful Enchantments Daily Lottery participants wait outside the Wenatchee River Ranger Station for a chance to win an overnight camping permit for one of the Enchantments Area zones during the former in-person lottery drawing. Changes coming to the daily permit lottery starting in May 2024. (Photo Credit: U.S. Forest Service, Summer 2019)
Beginning in May 2024 the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest will be making a change to the Enchantment daily “walk-up permit” lottery. The process will be changing from an in-person lottery process to a new mobile-based geofence system for obtaining a daily lottery permit for the Enchantments. This transition to a new Enchantment daily lottery is designed to improve efficiencies for staff by eliminating a cumbersome manual lottery and permit system, while improving customer convenience.
“The Okanogan Wenatchee is pleased to continue working with our National Forest reservation system, Recreation.gov, to pilot this new mobile technology and update the lottery process. Transitioning the lottery to a new digital process will help us free-up limited staff resources to better serve the public,” said Wenatchee River District Ranger Erica Taecker. “Both the Enchantments advanced and daily permit programs help the Forest Service manage the high visitor use that can result in resource damage if left unmanaged at this extremely popular, sensitive high-alpine destination.”
The new mobile application process maintains elements of the legacy walk-up system by only allowing those lottery applicants who are physically located within an intentionally set geographic boundary, the ability to participate in the lottery via a location enabled smart phone or other location-enabled mobile device. In this case the “geo-fence” boundary identified by Forest Service managers for this pilot, is a 1-mile perimeter surrounding the Wenatchee River Ranger station. The requirement to be within the geo-fence boundary mimics the “in-person” aspect of the original lottery process; ensuring successful applicants are in the area and ready for the in-person resource/safety briefing and available to pick-up the printed permit for their trip departure the following day.
More information on the new daily lottery process will be available in coming months. Check back for updates on the Forest Service Enchantments permit information web page: https://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/okawen/passes-permits/recreation/?cid=fsbdev3_053607.
The current Advanced Lottery Enchantments permit process that annually runs in February will continue unchanged on Recreation.gov.Geofence Mobile Application Process will be in place this year
