Julia Butterfly Hill is a well known American Environmentalist Activist. On December 10, 1997, Julia climbed a 1500 year old Redwood tree in order to protest the logging actions of the Pacific Lumber Company. She didn’t come down for 738 days.
She lived in the tree until December of 1999.
Julia’s goal was to protect the ancient tree and place a 200 foot buffer zone around the tree – exempt from logging. Julia also broke the record for ‘tree sitting’ during the duration of her protest.
Julia was just 23 years old at the time and she was inspired to take action after attending an environmentally inspired festival.
Here’s an Encyclopedia Britannica entry about Julia Hill… ↓
Julia Butterfly Hill, (born February 18, 1974, Mount Vernon, Missouri, U.S.), American activist known for having lived in a tree for 738 days in an act of civil disobedience to prevent clear-cutting of ecologically significant forests.
From December 10, 1997, to December 18, 1999, Hill lived in a 1,500-year-old California redwood tree named Luna and drew media attention to the environmentally destructive logging actions of the Pacific Lumber Company (Palco) under its new owner, Maxxam Corp., controlled by Charles Hurwitz.
She faced extreme weather, susceptibility to illness, and numerous attempts by PL to force her down, including the use of floodlights and loudspeakers. After more than two years in the tree, her vigil achieved a settlement that protected Luna’s immediate surroundings and included a $50,000 donation to Humboldt State University for forestry research.
Hill co-founded the Circle of Life Foundation (CILF), committed to transforming human interactions with nature, in 1999. She published a book about her tree-sitting experience, The Legacy of Luna: The Story of a Tree, a Woman, and the Struggle to Save the Redwoods, in 2000.