Deb Mark News Today

The U.S. Forest Service and a group of outfitters are pushing back against a Wilderness Watch lawsuit that seeks to ban the long-established shuttles to protect the solitude cherished by Boundary Waters visitors.

In limited areas of canoe country, small motorboats can jet you to the edge of the back country. But those days may be numbered by a long-simmering legal push to crack down on motorized towboats.

Several years ago, on a cold, mid-March evening at about 10 p.m., I took my dogs out for a walk beyond the lights of our home in Carbondale, Colorado. The sky was ablaze with stars, and as I looked up for the Big Dipper and the North Star, I noticed that the far horizon pulsated in a green glow. I couldn't believe that I was seeing the northern lights.

Bearing witness to the aurora borealis in Maine and New England is one of the greatest yet most rarely seen spectacles for anyone willing to sacrifice a bit of sleep.

Guides and others say recent decisions were made without seeking their opinions and that most of the damage to the wilderness last year was done by a small number of visitors.