A girl lived up a 180-foot, 1,000-year-old tree for two years to save lots of a forest from loggers. Meet Julia 'Butterfly' Hill.

Julia “Butterfly” Hill is known for dwelling in a tree for 738 days.

On the age of 23, environmental activist Julia “Butterfly” Hill lived in a tree, which was dubbed “Luna,” in California’s Redwood Forest in an act of civil disobedience. Her tree sit lasted from December 10, 1997, to December 23, 1999.

Hill determined to take part within the tree sit when the Pacific Lumber Firm introduced a brand new clear-cutting initiative that may vastly cut back the variety of timber within the iconic forest. Clear-cutting is an “excessive logging technique by which resilient pure forests are harvested and changed with man-made tree plantations that don’t replicate the ecosystem companies of a wholesome forest,” based on the environmental nonprofit group Sierra Membership.

Hill is now an activist and an writer. In 2000, she printed a memoir, “The Legacy of Luna: The Story of a Tree, a Girl, and the Wrestle to Save the Redwoods,” by which she documented her expertise dwelling within the tree. 

This Earth Day, April 22, listed here are a few of the particulars of Hill’s story.

Hill felt like she “did not belong” all through her childhood and adolescence.

Hill’s father was a touring preacher, so she spent a lot of her childhood transferring across the US. 

She was given the nickname “Butterfly” aged 7 when, throughout a mountaineering journey, a butterfly landed on her finger and stayed there for the remainder of the hike. She’s used the nickname since.

She was homeschooled for a lot of her youth. When the San Francisco Chronicle requested Hill about her childhood in a 2009 interview, she described emotions of social isolation.

“I did not belong, I did not slot in. I did not perceive different folks; I did not know the best way to relate,” she stated.

She now funnels her pure tendency for disobedience into causes she cares about most.

“I’ve been cussed and stepping into bother since I used to be 2, however I discovered the best way to redirect that into good causes,” Hill stated. 

After surviving a automobile crash in her early 20s, Hill reevaluated her priorities and determined to dedicate her life to environmental activism.

One summer time night time in 1996, Hill was driving a automobile that was hit from behind by a drunk driver. On account of the near-fatal accident, she had problem talking and strolling for nearly a full yr. Throughout her restoration course of, Hill reevaluated her priorities and took an curiosity in environmental preservation.

“It took 10 months of bodily and cognitive remedy to recuperate from the wreck, and through that point I spotted I needed to discover a extra highly effective goal for being right here on this planet,” Hill informed Grist journal in 2006.

“After I used to be launched from my final physician, I went on a highway journey with associates which led me to California, which led me to the redwoods,” she stated.

In 2000, a documentary titled “Butterfly,” which chronicled Hill’s expertise dwelling in a tree, premiered on TV.

The movie, which was directed by Doug Wolens and aired on PBS, has a 7.6 ranking on IMDb and an 80% on Rotten Tomatoes.

That very same yr, she additionally printed a memoir, “The Legacy of Luna: The Story of a Tree, a Girl, and the Wrestle to Save the Redwoods,” about her expertise dwelling in Luna. 

She continued to interact in environmental activism, years after descending Luna.

Pictured, Hill sat on scaffolding in a tree as a part of an effort to save lots of the 14-acre South Central Farm in Los Angeles, California, in Might 2006. She joined high-profile figures equivalent to actress Daryl Hannah, singer Joan Baez, and activist John Quigley within the tree in a bid to save lots of the city backyard, whose farmers had been underneath risk of eviction.

Nonetheless, in June 2006, the farmers had been evicted, the Los Angeles Each day Information reported, and bulldozers moved in that July. Among the farmers relocated to different areas within the metropolis.

Obsessed with environmental points, Hill is an outspoken vegan, and he or she refers to single-use, disposable gadgets as “weapons of mass destruction.”

“I’m a joyous vegan, and an avid cook dinner and un-cook. I like making ready meals that’s wholesome for folks, the planet, and animals, and tastes rattling good,” Hill informed Grist in 2006.

She additionally spoke about different methods she strives to reside consciously in relation to the surroundings, and what she recommends others implement with a purpose to do the identical.

“Eliminate disposability consciousness — each paper bag, paper plate, paper serviette, plastic to-go container, and Styrofoam cup,” she stated. “I’ve walked on the earth that’s related to the thread on the different finish of these horrific decisions, and I’m not being overdramatic once I say disposables are weapons of mass destruction.”

Now 49, Hill now lives a extra non-public life, however she stays dedicated to the identical environmental causes.

In an announcement on the homepage of her web site, Hill expressed her intention to reside a extra non-public life.

“Within the midst of all of my giving and supporting, I skilled brutal and painful past perception, private challenges on each single stage– emotional, bodily, non secular, psychological, and monetary,” she wrote. “I’m not telling you this to attempt to achieve sympathy, nor to put blame.”

Regardless of feeling lucky to have devoted years of her life to environmental advocacy, she requested that nobody contact her with any solicitations associated to her activism.

“I’m letting you recognize, that as a lot as I’ve so cherished having the chance to be in service, and am humbled and grateful for the myriad areas I’ve been capable of serve and help, the time is overdue now for me to transition past what folks proceed to hope and need me to be and do,” Hill wrote.

“This message is to let you recognize that I’m now not accessible for something in any respect referring to me being ‘Julia Butterfly Hill,'” she continued. Her web site now exists solely to offer assets and knowledge to its guests.

Nonetheless, Hill’s mission stays the identical, and he or she commonly shares messages about nature and our want to guard it on her Instagram web page.