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Julia Butterfly Hill in the redwood tree Luna.
This article is about Julia Butterfly Hill. For the species of butterfly, see Dryas julia. Julia Butterfly Hill (born
February 18,
1974) is an American
activist and
environmentalist. Hill is best known for living in a 180-foot-tall, 600-year-old
California Redwood tree for 738 days between December 10th, 1997 and December 18th, 1999. Hill lived in the tree, named "
Luna", to prevent loggers of the
Pacific Lumber Company from cutting it down. Hill lived in a small 6-by-8-foot shelter that she had built with help of other volunteers.
A native of
Jonesboro, Arkansas, Hill suffered a mild brain injury in a car crash a year before her
tree-sitting experience.
[1] She embarked on a spiritual quest afterwards, and this eventually lead her to the environmental cause opposed to the destruction of the redwood forest in
Humboldt County,
California. Originally, Hill was not officially affiliated with any environmental organization, deciding upon herself to undertake the act of
civil disobedience. Soon, Hill was actively supported by
Earth First!, among other organizations and volunteers.
A resolution was reached in 1999 when the
Pacific Lumber Company agreed to preserve Luna and all trees within a 3-acre
buffer zone. In exchange, Hill agreed to vacate the tree. In addition, $50,000 that Hill and other activists raised during the cause was given to the logging company (a somewhat controversial action amongst fellow activists), as stipulated by the resolution. Unfortunately, Luna was not completely saved as it was severely slashed with a chainsaw after Hill came down from the tree.
In 1999, Hill and other activists founded the organization
Circle of Life Foundation.
Hill was the subject of the
2000 documentary film Butterfly, and she is featured in the documentary film
Tree-Sit: The Art of Resistance, both chronicling her time in the redwood tree. Hill also appears as herself in
Philip Seymour Hoffman's film
Last Party 2000, a 2001 documentary which chronicles the six months leading-up to the
2000 U.S. presidential election. The
Red Hot Chili Peppers song "Can't Stop" contains the line "J. Butterfly is in the treetops".
In May 2006, Hill,
Daryl Hannah, and
Joan Baez were among the activists who took up residence in a walnut tree at the
South Central Community Garden,
Los Angeles, where they claim working-class immigrants tended crops, but that landowner Ralph Horowitz wished to develop.
Hill is the author of the book
The Legacy of Luna and co-author of
One Makes the Difference.
Dave Stark
dreamcatcher@astound.net
USAC & USAT level 2 certified coach
