Article March 14, 2005 ISSUE

I HAVE THINGS TO DO

By Elise Rindfleisch

A sunny day in the summer of 1998 changed my life. I was 14 and on my first backpacking trip through the Appalachian Mountains. Never before had I been so isolated from civilization, nor immersed so completely in the beauty of the natural world. Since the only semblances of human life were limited to my group of fellow hikers and a well-traveled trail, I easily became enraptured with the splendor of pure Mother Nature.

Hiking to the top of one particular mountain peak in Pennsylvania, I felt something was not quite right. The sunlight was brighter than one would expect in a forest. Then as I looked around, my sense of awe turned to horror. All the trees were dead.