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 redwood tree for 738 days between December 10, 1997 to December 18, 1999. Hill lived barefoot in the tree, affectionately known as "Luna," to prevent loggers of the Pacific Lumber Company from cutting it down.

Author, environmentalist, vegan, and social change activist, she is known for her extraordinary commitment to saving the Redwood Forest through her Luna Tree-sit, and ongoing efforts to educate, inspire, and further the movement for peace and social justice. She was awarded the Courage of Conscience award October 31, 2002.

Contents 1 Early life 2 Tree sit 3 In films 4 External links

Early lifeEdit

A native of Jonesboro, Arkansas, (WOO PIG SOOIE) Hill suffered a mild brain injury in a car crash a year before her tree sitting experience. She embarked on a spiritual quest afterwards, rejected the faith of her childhood and came away believing that we could transform ourselves; this eventually led her to the environmental cause opposed to the destruction of the redwood forests in Humboldt County, California.

Tree sitEdit

Originally, Hill was not officially affiliated with any environmental organization, deciding by 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. The $50,000 Earth First! paid to Pacific Lumber was then donated to a local university to do research about sustainable forestry.

In 1999, Hill and other activists founded the organization Circle of Life Foundation.

The tree was later attacked with a chainsaw. The gash to the 200-foot-tall redwood was discovered November 2001 by one of Hill's supporters. Observers at the scene said the cut measured 32 inches deep and 19 feet around the base, somewhat less than half the circumference of the tree. The gash was treated with an herbal remedy and the tree was stabilized with steel cables. As of spring 2007, the tree is doing well with new growth each year. Caretakers routinely climb the tree to check on its condition and to maintain the steel guywires.

Hill is the author of the book The Legacy of Luna and co-author of One Makes the Difference.

Luna eventually married the tree.

In filmsEdit

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 that chronicles the six months leading-up to the 2000 U.S. presidential election.

In 1999, she was also featured in a German documentary about California, called "California Dreamin'" where she discusses living on "Luna".

External linksEdit

• Julia Butterfly Hill's Official Website
• Julie Butterfly Hill's Weblog
• circleoflife.org
• Interview with Julia Butterfly Hill on KDVS, May 10 2006
• myhero.com Julia Hill
• Activist announces “the single largest war tax resistance in US history.”
• Julia protests Oil Pipeline through rare "cloud forest" (Ecuador's Mindo-Nambillo Reserve)