In late 2023, the U.S. Forest Service invited public input on the management of commercial, motorized towboat operations within the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in Minnesota, as it considers amending the Forest Plan to address this issue.

Political compromise prevented Congress from fully outlawing motorboats when the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness Act passed in 1978, but the law placed strict limits on motorboat use in the Wilderness. Despite such limits, the Forest Service has allowed commercial, motorized towboat use to increase over the years. 

Spanning 1.1 million acres, the Boundary Waters is the largest Wilderness east of the Rockies and north of the Everglades. With its 1,000-plus pristine lakes and 1,200 miles of rivers and streams, the BWCAW is unique as our nation’s only canoe-country wilderness, a place backcountry paddlers can experience the same way we have for centuries.

Motorized towboats are profitable commercial operations that ferry canoe parties as far into the BWCAW as motorboat use is allowed in order to save canoeists time. Despite their name, towboats typically do not tow canoes, but rather carry them on overhead racks. Towboat use makes many lakes—or chains of lakes—wilderness sacrifice zones with motorboats constantly buzzing back and forth.

Making matters worse, commercial, motorized towboat customers are often wilderness paddlers who want to save time getting to the adjacent Quetico Provincial Park on the Ontario side of the border, which generally has a wilder feel than the BWCAW. But the towboats degrade the Wilderness for wildlife and other visitors as they zoom through.

In February 2023, Wilderness Watch filed a second round of litigation challenging this unlawful commercial, motorized towboat use in the BWCAW. This public comment opportunity was an attempt by the Forest Service to show it is being responsive to its obligations to protect the Boundary Waters from excessive commercial motorboat use, so we urged our members and supporters to weigh in.

In our comments, we made the following points:

• Commercial, motorized towboat services degrade wilderness conditions and other people’s experience of the Wilderness. The motorized towboats are noisy, cause crowding, impact visitors’ wilderness experience, and also disturb wildlife.
• Motorized towboats create motorized bottlenecks at entry points into the BWCAW, especially in places like the Moose Chain, and they give an unfair advantage for campsites to those who are able to afford these services. The notion that motorized towboats are needed for dispersal to prevent overcrowding is also misguided because they simply move the crowding to places deeper in the Wilderness like Prairie Portage at the end of the Moose Lake Chain. 
• Towboat operators don't really act as guides, but just taxi service for convenience. Motorized tows are not needed to carry equipment and supplies because the groups that get towed are prepared for paddling and portaging on the rest of their trip.
• The BWCAW is already one of the most heavily used Wildernesses—including by groups of young girl and boy scouts and people with disabilities—without the use of towboats or other motorboats. It is simply not necessary to provide commercial towboat services for people to visit the Wilderness.
• Visitors to the BWCAW should—and the vast majority do—accept Wilderness on its own terms and choose their destination based on ability and willingness to work for it, and not simply pay for a motorized towboat ride to the far reaches of the Wilderness. It is easy enough to reach various destinations in the BWCAW without a motorized towboat, and in any event, ease, speed, and convenience are not what a wilderness experience is about.
• People visiting other Wildernesses can’t hire a motor vehicle to haul them and their gear from the trailhead deep into the Wilderness. The Boundary Waters shouldn’t be any different.
• Commercial, motorized towboat use should be eliminated or significantly reduced to preserve wilderness character and wilderness values. Existing levels of towboat use are excessive and unlawful, and whatever the Forest Service does needs to result in a reduction—a ratification of existing levels or an increase in traffic is unacceptable.

• Read our comments on “Invitation for Public Comment on the Management of Commercial Towboat Operations” (2023)