Julia Butterfly Hill
From Biocrawler, the free encyclopedia.
Julia "Butterfly" Hill is an American activist and environmentalist. Hill is best known for living in an 180-foot-tall, 600-year-old California Redwood tree for 738 days between December 10th, 1997 to December 18th, 1999. Hill lived in the tree, which she 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 Arkansas, Hill suffered a mild brain injury in a car crash a year before her tree-sitting experience. This event prompted her to embark on a spiritual quest, eventually leading 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 200-foot 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, as stipulated by the resolution. Pacific Lumber Company gave the $50,000 sum to Humboldt State University as a public donation towards university research.
In 1999, Hill and other activists founded the Circle of Life Foundation.
Hill is 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.
Hill is the author of the book The Legacy of Luna.
Weblinks
- circleoflifefoundation.org (http://www.circleoflifefoundation.org)
- Her weblog (http://www.circleoflife.org/blog/julia/)
- activismispatriotism.org (http://www.activismispatriotism.org/)
- myhero.com Julia Hill (http://myhero.com/myhero/hero.asp?hero=j_hill)
- Photos from Julia in the tree house (http://www.ottermedia.com/LunaJulia.html)
