Lob Trees in the Wilderness By Clifford and Isabel Ahlgren. In the days of the voyageurs, branches were cut from tall trees along the Minnesota-Ontario border, leaving the middle of the trees bare. These "lob trees" served as guideposts, helping fur traders and explorers find their way through the uncharted maze of lakes and portages. The authors of this book are retired forest ecologists who worked for many years at the Wilderness Research Foundation in Ely, Minnesota. In this book the wilderness is the Boundary Waters Canoe Area of northern Minnesota, and "lob trees" are used as a poetic way to link the results of historical and ecological research in this setting. pb 192 pages