Julia Butterfly Hill

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Template:Short description Template:Use American English Template:Use mdy dates Template:Infobox person Julia Lorraine Hill (born February 18, 1974), best known as Julia Butterfly Hill, is an American environmental activist and tax redirection advocate. She lived in a Template:Convert-tall, approximately 1,000-year-old California redwood tree for 738 days between December 10, 1997, and December 18, 1999. Hill lived in a tent near the top of a tree, affectionately known as Luna, to prevent Pacific Lumber Company loggers from cutting it down. She ultimately reached an agreement with the lumber company to save the tree.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Hill is the author of the book The Legacy of Luna (2000) and co-author of One Makes the Difference.

Pre–tree sit

Hill's father was a traveling minister who went from town to town, bringing his family with him. Until she was about ten years old, Hill lived in a Template:Convert camper with her father Dale, mother Kathy, and brothers Mike and Dan. Julia is the middle child. While traveling with her family, Hill often explored rivers by campgrounds.<ref name="savingtheredwoods">Template:Cite book</ref> When Hill was seven years old, she and her family were taking a hike one day when a butterfly landed on her finger and stayed with her for the duration of the hike. From that day on, her nickname became "Butterfly". She decided to use that as her nickname for the rest of her life.<ref name="savingtheredwoods"/>

When Hill was in middle school, her family stopped traveling and settled in Jonesboro, Arkansas.<ref name="savingtheredwoods"/> In August 1996, at age 22, she suffered a near-fatal car crash.<ref name="butterflystale">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> At the time, Hill was acting as the designated driver for a friend who had been drinking. Her friend's car was hit from behind by a drunk driver.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The steering wheel of the car penetrated her skull. It took almost a year of intensive therapy before she regained the ability to speak and walk normally.<ref name="yearinthesky">Template:Cite news</ref> She said:

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Hill embarked on a spiritual quest afterward, leading her to the environmental cause opposed to the destruction of the redwood forests in Humboldt County, California.<ref name="legacyofluna"/>

Tree sit

After recuperating from her accident, Hill took a road trip to California and attended a reggae fundraiser to save the forests. A group of "front-liners" had been rotating tree sitters in and out of giant redwoods in Humboldt County every couple of days to stave off Pacific Lumber Co. loggers who were clear-cutting. The trees were on a windswept ridge overlooking the community of Stafford,<ref name="Wilson2">Template:Cite news</ref> which is south of Scotia.<ref name="Sunny2">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> On New Year's Eve 1996, a landslide in Stafford caused by clearcut logging by Pacific Lumber Company (Maxxam) on steep slopes above the community resulted in most of the community being buried up to Template:Convert in mud and tree debris; eight homes were completely destroyed.<ref name="Slide2">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="NBC2">Template:Cite video</ref> Organizers wanted someone to stay in the tree for one week. "Nobody else would volunteer so they had to pick me", said Hill.<ref name="treetoptograssroots">Template:Cite news</ref>

Originally, Hill was not officially affiliated with any environmental organization, deciding by herself to undertake civil disobedience. Soon, she was actively supported by Earth First!, among other organizations, and by volunteers.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> On December 10, 1997, Hill ascended a 1,000-year-old<ref name="Slash3">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> lightning-struck<ref name="Curtius">Template:Cite news</ref> redwood tree to a height of Template:Convert. The tree had previously been nicknamed “the Stafford Giant" because of its proximity to the small community of Stafford.<ref name="legacyofluna">Template:Cite book</ref> Since the Moon was rising at the time, activists chose to name the tree “Luna” (Spanish for “Moon”) to commemorate the event:<ref name="yearinthesky2">Template:Cite news</ref>

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Hill lived on two Template:Convert platforms for 738 days. She learned many survival skills while living in Luna, such as "seldom washing the soles of her feet, because the sap helped her feet stick to the branches better."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> She used solar-powered cell phones for radio interviews, became an "in-tree" correspondent for a cable television show, and hosted TV crews to protest old-growth clear cutting.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Using ropes, Hill hoisted up survival supplies brought by an eight-member support crew. To keep warm, she wrapped herself tight in a sleeping bag, leaving only a small hole for breathing. For meals, she used a single-burner propane stove.<ref name="180ft" /> Throughout her ordeal, she weathered freezing rains and Template:Convert winds from El Niño,<ref name="180ft">Template:Cite news</ref> helicopter harassment, a ten-day siege by company security guards and attempts at intimidation by angry loggers.<ref name="yearinthesky" /><ref name="legacyofluna" />

A resolution was reached in 1999, when the Pacific Lumber Company agreed to preserve Luna and all trees within a Template:Convert buffer zone.<ref name="Slash" /><ref name="envsciAPbansol">Template:Cite book</ref> In exchange, it was agreed that Hill would vacate the tree, and that the $50,000 she and other activists had raised during her occupancy would be given to the logging company. The agreement also provided that the company would donate that same amount to Cal Poly Humboldt for research into sustainable forestry practices.<ref name="Slash">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Vandals later cut into the tree with a chainsaw.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> A gash in the Template:Convert-tall redwood was discovered in November 2000 by one of Hill's supporters.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Observers at the scene said the cut measured Template:Convert deep and Template:Convert 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. In 2001, Eureka civil engineer Steve Salzman headed Luna's "medical team" which designed and built a bracing system to help the tree withstand the extreme windstorms with peak winds between Template:Convert.<ref name="Cable">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> They were assisted by Cal Poly Humboldt professor Steven Sillett.<ref name="Cable" /> As of spring 2007, the tree was doing well with new growth each year. Caretakers routinely climb the tree to check its condition and to maintain the steel guywires.<ref>How is Luna Today ? Template:Webarchive Luna's Status currently by "Sanctuary Forest</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Luna is under the stewardship of Sanctuary Forest, a nonprofit organization.<ref name="Slash3"/>

Post–tree sit

File:Julia Butterfly Hill, 2009 (cropped).png
Hill speaking at the Harmony Festival in 2009

Since her tree sit, Hill has become a motivational speaker, an author, and the co-founder of the Circle of Life Foundation (which helped organize We the Planet, an eco-friendly music tour) and the Engage Network, a nonprofit that trains small groups of civic leaders to work toward social change.<ref name="catchingup">Template:Cite news</ref>

Ecuadorian oil pipeline protest

On July 16, 2002, Hill was jailed in Quito, Ecuador outside the offices of Occidental Petroleum, for protesting a proposed oil pipeline that would penetrate a virgin Andean cloud forest that teems with rare birds.<ref name="hilldeported">Template:Cite news</ref> Ecuadorian President Gustavo Noboa commented, "The little gringos have been arrested, including the old cockatoo who climbs trees."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Hill was later deported from Ecuador.<ref name="hilldeported" />

Tax redirection

In 2003, Hill became a proponent of tax redirection, resisting payment of about $150,000 in federal taxes, donating the money to after-school programs, arts and cultural programs, community gardens, programs for Native Americans, alternatives to incarceration, and environmental protection programs. She said:

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Farm sale protest

In 2006, Hill protested the sale of the South Central Farm in an attempt to save the Template:Convert farm from developers.<ref name="protestsong">Template:Cite news</ref>

Template:Inpopularculture Hill has been the subject of several documentaries, interviews, and books, including her own 2000 memoir, The Legacy of Luna, and has influenced numerous musicians:

  • On December 10, 1998, a benefit concert was played at the Mateel Community Center in Redway, California during Julia's "tree sit". Artists performing were Bob Weir and Mark Karan as an acoustic duet, the Steve Kimock Band, and the Mickey Hart Band. Hill took part in the event, reading her poem "Luna" via telephone while the Mickey Hart Band was performing "The Dancing Sorcerer".<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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  • Hill was the subject of the documentary Butterfly (2000) broadcast on PBS POV. She is also featured in the documentary film Tree-Sit: The Art of Resistance.<ref name="treesit">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref> Both films document her time in the redwood tree.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="treesit" />

  • The 2000 twelfth-season episode of The Simpsons called "Lisa the Tree Hugger" was conceived when writer Matt Selman heard a news story about Hill.<ref name="Kencom">Template:Cite video</ref>
  • In Gilmore Girls Season 3 Episode 8 aired in November 2002, Rory asks Dean if he remembers "that girl Butterfly who lived in a tree for a year", and then continues, "I can officially attest that she was nuts."<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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  • In Penn & Teller's 2003 first season of their documentary television show, Bullshit, Hill appeared as a Special Guest Expert on the episode "Environmental Hysteria".<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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  • The main character of the 2017 Swedish children's book Julia räddar skogen (Julia saves the forest) by Niklas Hill and Anna Palmqvist is named after Hill. The book is about a child who occupies a tree in order to hinder the construction of a new highway.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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  • In The Overstory by Richard Powers, the character Olivia Vandergriff is loosely based on Hill.

Music

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  • In 2009, Idina Menzel wrote a song entitled "Butterfly" referring to Hill's concern for the environment.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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References

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Further reading

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