Julia Butterfly Hill, an American environmental activist, spent 738 days inside Luna, a large 1500-year-old redwood tree, protesting the logging methods used by Pacific Lumber.
She lived in the tree from December 10, 1997, to December 1999. When Pacific Lumber Company decided to preserve the tree and a 200-foot buffer zone surrounding it, her revolutionary work came to an end.
She intended to stop destruction, draw attention to PL’s environmental carelessness, and educate the public about the value of trees in stabilizing hillsides with her protest, which broke world records for tree sitting.
When Julia was 23 years old, she decided to participate in a “tree sit” protest while attending an eco-friendly event, so she scaled the massive redwood tree.
She was just someone who couldn’t believe that someone would use a chainsaw to take down a redwood that had been standing for up to 2000 years. She wasn’t a trained activist and she didn’t have any high ideals.
She also asserts that if she hadn’t succeeded, she would not have thought she was capable of pulling it off.
In her early twenties, Julia experienced a horrific car accident and went through a period of recovery before realizing her life had become out of balance.
“My passion had grown to include my job, my achievement, and my material belongings. I became aware of the significance of the moment and the necessity of doing everything in my power to alter the path of history as a result of the catastrophe.
When Julia moved to the west, she joined a group of “tree sitters” who were protesting the Pacific Lumber Company’s clear-cut redwood logging on the northern California coast. They were there to collect funds for an old growth forest’s preservation.
After learning that only 3% of the once-abundant redwood ecosystem remained, she went to an old growth forest and was startled by the intellect, life, and spirituality of the redwoods. She wanted to make things different.
Julia thought she could easily spend a week or two living in a tree because she was an introvert and enjoyed being outside.
“Earth First! needed a person to stay in a redwood tree to prevent loggers from cutting it down, and because no one else volunteered, they had to pick me. They were performing tree sits in order to highlight how crucial it is to protect old trees. On December 10, 1997, I got on the harness and climbed to the top of Luna, 180 feet up. It took me longer than I expected—two years, eight days—to stay in the tree, which I had planned to do for three to four weeks. I held off returning to the earth until the corporation assured me that Luna and the community’s grove would be protected.
Julia has spent more than two years on two 6 x 6 foot platforms in the tree’s expansive canopy. In order to get the attention of the international media, she used a solar-powered phone. To distribute food and supplies, volunteers hiked 2 1/2 kilometers up the mountain. In addition to being harassed by helicopters and threatened by loggers who were cutting trees nearby, Julia had to endure one of the worst El Nino storms. Even death threats were made against her. She was cold and damp most of the time, but every now and again, “discomfort and fear left her sobbing in the fetal position.”
If I kept debating politics and science and stayed in the mind rather than the heart and the spirit, I knew it would inevitably come down to one side vs. the other. Apart from that, however, everyone can agree that notions like respect, dignity, and compassion only go so far.
But how could I get the loggers to consider the forest deserving of their possible feelings for a human? And how could I get them to change the way they felt about me? Considering that I was viewed by them as an eco-hippie who embraced trees and ate granola.
She insisted that the wisdom of the tree had given her courage. There is no disputing the close bond that developed between Julia and Luna. she loved the tree
She had only planned to stay in the redwood for a week. The rest of the Earth First! team helped pull her onto a wooden plank and into the branches. Water and food were in her travel bag.
Everyone assumed Julia would return to the forest floor after the week was through. But the truth was quite different. Julia decided to scale the entire tree and construct a temporary shelter after seven days.
Nobody, not even her Earth First! friends, was aware of her intentions when she made camp atop the redwood.
Julia just cared that logging in that area would cease as long as she was in the tree.
Weeks turned into months, and Julia remained atop the tree she had named “Luna.” She stated that she learned a lot about herself while there, with one of the most important lessons being how to live independently.
Julia endured bitter cold, snowstorms, and torrential downpours that tore at her plywood vantage point. Although she had moments of doubt about her ability to survive, she was ultimately able to withstand everything that nature could throw at her.
Julia adopted a Zen-like attitude throughout her protest, and as a result, she developed a fresh perspective on both life and people. She realized that it is always better to bend with the wind than to stand rigidly and face the risk of breaking.
After 738 days, Julia left her home atop Luna and returned to civilization with a lovely new outlook on life. Without a doubt, she was a different person.
The protest Julia organized was a significant win for the environmental movement as a whole. She gave a speech about the importance of social and environmental advocacy after leaving the redwood. Her book, The Legacy of Luna, details her two years spent living on the tree.
