Wednesday, February 14, 2007

Hike for KaTREEna Results and Frustration

The Greater Baton Rouge (LA) Business Report carries an article by Maggie Heyn Richardson titled "Hammering it Out" that was posted on 13 February 2007. The second half of the article is about Applachian Trail 2006 thru-hiker Monique Pilié.

Pilié [the article consistently spells her name "Pilier," but her own web site has "Pilié" so that's what I'm using except in the quotations], a New Orleans native, evacuated in the face of hurricane Katrina to her family's "longtime country home in Covington." The loss of hundreds trees of trees there really hit her hard.

So she went on a hike.

Her desire to see trees replanted "sparked the creation of Hike for KaTREEna, a personal mission to plant a tree in greater New Orleans for every mile Pelier hiked on the 2174-mile long Appalachian Trail." ....

"But now that her daily pursuit of food and shelter is over, Pelier is discovering the arduous task of running a charity. She returned from the trail in October, and despite raising awareness and $40,000, she has only planted 15 trees.

"The problem is one of timing.

"'I'll drive around and think 'that's a perfect spot,' but the city will tell me if I plant something there it'll be dug up because of pending public works projects.'

"Pelier says she deals with the bureaucratic drudgery by recalling the amount of focus it took to complete a day of hiking.

"'Sometimes you can't see the end of the trail,' she says, 'but you still know it's there.'"

What a story! Go to her web site and buy a tree.

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