"El Lobo Loco." (Hazel Wolf's Campaigns for the Conservation of Forests and the environment)(Column)

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When the old woman got to the trailhead, briefcase in hand, the Student Conservation Association kids were half-a-mile away in the Washington old-growth, clearing brush off the path. But Hazel Wolf wanted to see them. So she started into the woods.

Wolf, then 95, crossed two rickety bridges, climbed over old cedar roots, and hiked up two flights of stairs carved into the dirt. Upon reaching the trail workers, she zipped open her powder-blue valise and pulled out a typewritten speech.

Addressing a dozen inner-city teens, Wolf spoke quietly of how she'd grown up poor and in love with the forest, and then, laughing, she assured the teens that yes, she still had all her own …