When Ben Haberthur returned from Iraq in 2003, he found solace and recovery in 10-hour hikes along California’s coasts, often with fellow veterans. Now a restoration ecologist with the Forest Preserve District of Kane County, Haberthur is determined to offer that same cathartic experience to Chicagoland’s veterans. “Two months after leaving Iraq, I was in a classroom,” said Haberthur, who enrolled in an environmental sciences program at California State University, Monterey Bay. “I didn’t feel like I belonged. I couldn’t identify” with classmates who were worried about a paper deadline, he said.