Rumble in the Redwoods – an historic account

Hill is still an activist, and the author of the book The Legacy of Luna (2000) and co-author of One Makes the Difference. She spent over 1,000 days in the branches of the redwood, Luna. This is her story from 1999.

Julia Butterfly Hill went to California on a “spiritual quest” but stayed for an environmental crusade. Since December, 1997, she has been waging a battle against logging companies from the branches of an ancient redwood she calls Luna.

On August 16th, 1996, my head collided with a steering wheel, damaging my brain and body, and changing the course of my life forever. It awakened me to the real, true understanding that every single moment of every day is a sacred gift.

A year later I left my home in Fayetteville, Arkansas and headed west, following my spirit. I thought my journey would take me out of the country. But when I entered the majestic cathedral of the redwood forest in Grizzly Creek State Park in California, my spirit knew it had found what it was searching for. I dropped to my knees and began to cry because I was so overwhelmed by the wisdom, energy, and spirituality housed in these holiest of temples.

My wanderings then took me to the incredible Lost Coast of Northern California where I spent a month hiking and absorbing the beauty. During one of my trips into Garberville for supplies, I met a volunteer from the Environmental Protection Information Center (EPIC) who told me about the destruction of the Headwaters Forest by logging companies.

Life in the Branches

One night, after praying to the universal spirit about the direction my life was meant to take, I decided to do what I could to save these awe-inspiring forests. I went back to Fayetteville and sold everything I owned. I said my good-byes to the closest friends I’ve ever had and cam back out west determined to help.

On reaching Arcata, California I called EPIC to get directions to Action Campaign in Stafford (California) only to be told, “Action Camp is closing, we don’t need you.” At a rally in Eureka a few hours later, I marched, chanted and cried for the fallen ancient trees. Several people asked me what I was going to do. When I told them, their answers were almost all the same. “Action camp is closing: they really can’t use you.”

A beautiful, kind brother named Shakespeare overheard one of my conversations. He made sure I got to Action Camp. He told me if I as gong to get plugged in to what was happening, that was the best place for me to start. Over the next three days I wandered around the camp trying to meet the right people. Sometimes I was completely shunned. The effectiveness and safety of activist often depends small groups of trusted individuals who plan out the actions they’re going to take on behalf of the forests. They turn people away who want to help.

Then I met a man named Almond who was enlisting people to trees it in the Stafford gin, Luna. I volunteer, excited to at last be dong something.

Two days later, I hiked to the top of Stafford Ridge and climbed the 1,000-year-old redwood tree. I spent the next six days in her branches, learning to trees it.

When Luna came under attack by logging companies in early December 1997, Almond, Luna’s bottom-liner (a person who acts as the “glue” of a tree-sit, coordinating people in the trees, food and media access), and I both decided to “hold down the fort” and tree-sit for a while. Two weeks turned into three and after that I thought, “I’m so close to a month, I might as well stay.”

I have now been “living and loving” on Luna for 18 months. It is not easy to be in the woods 24 hours a day, seven days a week, but I have gotten to the point where it is my life.

A New Path

We are constantly in rain clouds up here. This is a rainforest. It’s wet and cold. The platform isn’t sealed. You have to keep food in buckets or the chipmunks, deer mice and northern flying squirrels will eat it. My waste gets lower down in buckets. I do push-ups and sit-ups, and climb Luna. It is like being isolated in a jail cell. But it’s not as hard as it used to be.

Dealing with the media is one of the biggest sacrifices I have had to make. I am on the cell phone constantly. I do 8-10 interviews a day. They ebb and flow like the wind.

I had no intention or desire to climb up to this platform to walk about me or talk to the world about how I deal with my waste. It’s nobody’s damn business. My desire was to get the word out about what’s happening here. It’s not important how I eat or how I survive. But I began to understand that it was going to take my being willing to talk about these things to help people connect with me because they can’t always connect with the forest – which is why our forests are being destroyed. I plan on coming down when my service on the ground is more effective than my service in the trees.

Luna and I have become one in a way I never would’ve thought possible. We have stood together and survived loggers and the desperate sadness of watching the forest’s giant elders smash into the ground. It’s like watching your family being murdered.

Under Siege

We have been placed under siege by Pacific Lumber security. They cordoned Luna off with ropes for 10 days in an effort to cut off my supplies and starve me down. The blew airhorns through the night to cause sleep deprivation. Floodlights shone up into the tree and around it because they were trying to keep me from pulling off any kind of resupply, even at night.

On Day 8 of the siege we pulled off a resupply anyway, thanks to 20 wonderful, committed, loving, joyous, caring people who risked arrest that day in order to help. A lot of home had bags in their hands, but only a couple of people have bags with supplies. We used a series of codes so I would know when to lower the rope and when to pull it up because I couldn’t see what was going on on the ground.

The security stayed on for two more days then the winter storms got so bad that they just left. We survived some of the worst recorded storms in California history – some of the people like myself do this work because we understand that it’s’ vital to the very survival of our species. It’s’ all connected and it’s all-important. Every species has its own right to survival.

With the love, unity and support of some incredible individuals, many of whom I’ve never even seen, our occupation of this hillside is now closing in on more than 550 days of open defiance. Luna and I, with the amazing efforts of this wonderful support team, stand together in defiance of the destructive practices of corporate greed and paid-off politicians.

Luna is our beach of hope and truth. In all her majestic glory, she has become our platform to the world. From her branches we are making people aware that the destruction of the environment is a direct reflection of the destruction of our lives!