A CENTURY OF TIRELESS ACTIVISM BY LAURA T. COFFEY Journal environmental editor SEATTLE -- Hazel Wolf has one of the biggest hornets' nests in the entire planet situated right outside her screenless living room window. The 98-year-old's building manager offered to spray it for her. She did not respond with relief and gratitude. "I said, 'Over my dead body!"' Wolf exclaimed. "Those little guys work too hard! I'm not going to let that happen." Instead, she went to the library to read up on hornets and learn about how they make their durable paper homes. "They make them from the bark of trees," she said. "They fly over to the trees, and then they fly back and magically make it into paper. ... You didn't realize this was the Hazel Wolf Wildlife Refuge, did you?" This is typical Hazel Wolf fare: strong opinions served up with an unfailing sense of humor. The petite, spry woman has strong opinions about most things, whether they be hornets' nests or politics or the McCarthy Era or the importance of spending time in the great outdoors. Wolf has clearly and consistently articulated her opinions for decades, both in writing and in the dozens of speeches she's made throughout the United States and abroad. Whether she's A WOLF IN SHEEP'S CLOTHING: Don't let the grandmotherly appearance fool you. Hazel Wolf gets tough when she feels the environment or people's civil rights are in danger. Photo by Laura T. Coffey speaking to groups of university students, government officials, business people or "at risk" youths, she peppers her speeches with frequent one-liners and jokes -- and she always remembers the punch lines. "You have to say something to make them laugh," Wolf said. "That really gets their attention." What she's done Wolf moved to Seattle from Victoria in 1923 when she was 25 years old. Her activism and contributions over the years are eclipsed only by how much she is accomplishing now that she's approaching her 100th birthday. At 98, she edits and writes for Outdoors West, the Federation of Western Outdoor Clubs' magazine, just as she has done for the past 17 years. She serves as secretary of the Seattle Audubon Society, just as she has done for the past 32 years. She's still known for being able to flip through her bulging Rolodex, call some of her longtime friends and acquaintances and line up convention programs from her office in her Capitol Hill apartment. For instance, she coordinated the program for this coming weekend's annual convention of the Federation of Western Outdoor Clubs (FWOC) at Snoqualmie Pass. Scheduled speakers include: Christine Gregoire, state attorney general; state Rep. Frank Chopp; King County Commissioner Larry Gossett; and Joe De La Cruz, past Quinault tribal chairman and president of the National Congress of American Indians. Wolf makes it a point to speak to groups of young people on a regular basis, and she still goes camping and swimming and kayaking as often as possible. "I get out there and sleep on little twigs," she said. Her last camping trip was in May, but she hasn't had a chance to go kayaking in about two years -- only because her busy schedule hasn't allowed it, she said. The active great-great-grandmother even has her own web site. "I've never seen it, though," she said. "Someone did it for me and told me about it." In 1993, Wolf and fellow Seattle Audubon Society board member Robert Grant founded the Community Coalition for Environmental Justice (CCEJ), a Seattle-based group that works to rectify the fact that many low-income neighborhoods are situated near hazardous waste sites, toxic dumps and industrial areas. "Those of us in the environmental movement have been focused quite narrowly on the natural environment," Wolf explained. "I felt we should broaden our focus to include the human environment and issues like unemployment, homelessness, crime in the streets. ... I knew they were connected." The Environmental Protection Agency awarded a $50,000 grant that's allowing the CCEJ to work with the American Lung Association to teach people how to make their indoor air environments healthier. Throughout 1996, CCEJ is conducting indoor air quality assessments in 75 to 100 homes of people who have asthma in central and southeast Seattle, primarily in the city's three housing projects where disproportionately high incidences of asthma are reported. Over the years, Wolf also has helped organize more than 20 chapters of the Audubon Society in Washington state and British Columbia. An environmental and political activist for decades, Wolf currently serves as precinct committee officer for her immediate neighborhood, a four-block area with 350 residents. She's famous for motivating people to register to vote. Studs Terkel included the story of Wolf's life in his book Coming of Age. Released in 1995, the book relates the accounts of 70 different Americans in their 90s in order to give a composite view of 20th century American life. Wolf's copy of the book bears a handwritten inscription that reads: "You are great! A true heroine of the Great Northwest. With gratitude, Studs." In the course of being interviewed for the book, Wolf managed to get Terkel's wife signed up as a member of the Audubon Society. Gov. Mike Lowry proclaimed March 10, 1996, Wolf's 98th birthday, to be Hazel Wolf Day. His official proclamation cites many of her accomplishments, including this one from the 1970s: "Hazel Wolf organized the first statewide conference of Native Americans and environmentalists in 1978 after visiting almost every tribe in the state ... and brought together farmers, conservationists and tribes to protect the Columbia River from expansion of the Columbia Basin Project and to preserve the Hanford Reach." "I feel that's the most valuable and interesting thing I've done," Wolf said. After she became president of the FWOC in the late '70s, Wolf thought it would be smart for conservationists to come together with Native American tribes to discuss shared concerns. "I thought we would have a lot in common, but I didn't know how to approach it," she said. She approached her friend Elizabeth Furse, who is now a Congresswoman in Oregon, and asked for some guidance. Furse recommended that Wolf call Joe De La Cruz, who was serving as Quinault tribal chairman at the time. He was enthusiastic about the idea of having a joint conference, and he too became committed to making the conference a reality. American Friends donated $5,000 to cover Wolf's expenses so she could drive to all 26 tribes in Washington and meet with tribal leaders in person. "I made it to almost every one of them," she said. "I also visited some in southern British Columbia." Thus the first Indian-Conservationist Conference was born. It was held in Seattle from Sept. 28-30, 1979. "Friendships were formed there that endure to this day," Wolf said. Around that same time, Wolf began educating herself about plans to expand the Columbia Basin Project. The expansion would have irrigated the final 500,000 acres of dryland farming, native grasslands and sagebrush desert. Wolf read the entire environmental impact statement for the proposed expansion and visited the areas that would have been affected. "I always listen to all the arguments before I make a decision," she said. In late 1977, she wrote an extensive article about the project for Outdoors West that observed: "The old dams seem to be producing costly environmental debits along with their much vaunted cheap power. Are there alternatives?" Her article discussed both the benefits and the adverse effects of the existing Columbia Basin Project and warned about the dangers of expanding the project, including this possible result of irrigating more and more desert land: "A trend of this sort is likely to force western Washington farmers out of business. Existing farm lands should be kept in production and pressures on the owners to relinquish valuable fertile lands for industrial and commercial development should be relieved." The expansion plans eventually were dropped. Another colorful detail in her life that's gotten plenty of attention is her involvement with the Communist party. She joined the party during the Depression of the 1930s and remained a member for 13 years. "I liked it because it was oriented toward homeless people and jobless people," she said. "But then World War II started and everyone went to work, and the Communist party had nothing to do. I left it because I got bored." During the McCarthy Era, Wolf spent half a day in jail for "trying to overthrow" and began a 15-year period of litigation to prevent herself from being deported back to Canada. She became a U.S. citizen after she finally managed to get the deportation order canceled. Her lawyer throughout those 15 years was John Caughlan, a civil rights attorney for whom Wolf worked as a legal secretary for many years. What's she doing right? Wolf says she's devised a formula for staying young. "Number one, I don't have a TV, so I have no stress because I don't have to listen to what Congress is doing. Number two, I don't have a car, so I have no stress because I don't have to worry about where to park it. Number three, I have no medical benefits, so I can't afford doctors or pills, so I have to stay well. And number four, I eat an apple a day, and as everyone knows, an apple a day builds an insurmountable barrier to any medical interference." She has one daughter, five grandchildren, five great-grandchildren and two great-great-grandchildren. Her walls are covered with the awards, plaques and ribbons she's been given over the years. She says she feels optimistic about humans' ability to undo the environmental ills created during the 20th century. "I don't think we're going to destroy the planet," she said. "I've never run into a species that deliberately wiped out its own habitat." At the end of her story in the book Coming of Age, Terkel captures Wolf's views on what would be an ideal funeral service. "If there's a gathering in my memory, I hope it's a fund-raiser for a good cause. ... I was born in 1898. I'm going to live until the year 2000, so I could have been in three centuries. Then I'm going."