CNJ+ June 2024

Interesting People Throughout History JULIA BUTTERFLY HILL — TREE HUGGER By Pam Teel

Environmental activist, Julia Butterfly Hill, was born in 1974. She is best known for having lived in a 200-foot tall, 1000-year-old, California redwood tree for 738 days between December 1997 1999. The tree, affectionately named Luna, was slated to be cut down by the Pacific Lumber Company. Hill eventually made an agreement with the lumber company to save the tree. Hill’s father was a traveling min ister, so in her early years, she went from town to town living in a 32-foot camper with her parents and two brothers. While camping out in various places, Hill always enjoyed discovering the hidden gems in the area. She would love

dropped to my knees and began to cry. I connected with a higher purpose for my life. These beau tiful forests were being clear-cut, and I wanted to do something.” Hill learned many survival skills while living in the tree, such as seldom washing the soles of her feet, because the sap helped her feet stick to the branches bet ter. She used solar-powered cell phones for radio interviews, be came an “in-tree” correspondent for a cable television show, and hosted TV crews to protest old growth clear-cutting. With ropes, Hill hoisted up survival supplies brought by an eight-member support crew. To keep warm, she wrapped herself tight in a sleep

to take hikes and explore rivers. One day a butterfly landed on her finger and stayed with her for the duration of her hike. (Where she acquired the nick name butterfly.) It wasn’t until Hill was in middle school that her parents decided to stop traveling and settle down in Arkansas. When Hill was 22 years old, she was involved in a near-fatal car crash. She was hit from behind by a drunk driver. The steering wheel of the car she was driving penetrated her skull. It took over a year of extensive therapy before she was able to walk or speak normally. During that time of convalescence, she felt that her whole life had been out of balance. Graduating from high school at 16 and going right to work, she found herself obsessed with career, money, and material things. The crash woke her up and gave her a new di rection in life. She wanted more of a spiritual connection than just all work and no gratitude for it. She decided to take a road trip to California and attended a fundraiser to save the forests. She was interested in the group of front liners who had been taking turns tree-sitting in the giant redwoods in Humboldt County to keep the logging company from cutting down more of the ancient redwoods. The trees were on a windswept ridge overlooking the community of Stafford. On New Year’s Eve 1996, a landslide in Stafford caused by the clear-cut logging resulted in most of the community being buried by 17 feet of mud and tree debris, and eight homes were destroyed. Organizers wanted someone to stay in the tree for a solid week and when no one else volunteered, they picked her, even though she was not officially affiliated with the environmental organization. Soon afterward though, she was actively supported by many other environmental groups. So, on Dec. 10, 1997, Hill climbed the 1,000-year-old tree to a height of 180 feet. It took another hour and a half to create a makeshift base and bring the rest of the provisions up. She was happy when she could undo her harness and finally rest from exhaustion on the two 6 by 4-foot planks that formed her platform. There she remained for two years and thirty-eight days. Hill stated, “When I entered the ancient redwoods for the first time, I

ing bag, leaving only a small hole for breathing. For meals, she used a sin gle-burner propane stove. Throughout her ordeal, she weathered freezing rains and 40 mph winds from El Niño, helicopter harassment, and a ten-day siege by company security guards who blocked her team from supplying food to her. She was intimidated by angry loggers who downed trees around her very close to the redwood she was in. Only about 3 percent of the an cient redwoods remain today after being cut down by loggers. The winter of 1997-98 was a particularly brutal one in Northern Califor nia due to the powerful El Niño storms. “One night I thought I was going to die,” Hill wrote in The New York Times . “The wind was 90 m.p.h. Imagine you’re on a bucking bronco. Put that bronco on a ship at sea, in the middle of a storm; then put those 180 feet in the air. I was broken, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually, suffering frostbite, and cut off from the only people that cared whether I lived or died. I grabbed Luna (the tree’s nickname) and started praying.” Hill said she survived by learning to live as one with Luna, swaying with the tree as its branches bent in the winds. A resolution was reached in 1999 when the Pacific Lumber Company agreed to preserve Luna and all trees within a 200-foot buffer zone. In ex change, Hill agreed to vacate the tree. In addition, the $50,000 that she and other activists raised during the cause was given to the logging company, as stipulated by the resolution. The money was then donated to Humboldt State University as part of the agreement for research into sustainable for estry. Unfortunately, later in 2000, Vandals cut into the tree with a chainsaw. A large gash in the 200-foot redwood was discovered by one of Hill’s support ers. The gash was treated with an herbal remedy, and the tree was stabilized with steel cables. The bracing system helped the tree withstand extreme windstorms with peak winds between 60 and 100 miles per hour. As of spring 2007, the tree was doing well with new growth each year.

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JUNE 2024