Environmental Activist Marks Year Perched in Ancient California Tree
http://forests.org/-- Forest Conservation Archives
12/10/98
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Title: Environmental Activist Marks Year Perched in Ancient California
Tree
Source: Reuters
Status: Copyrighted, contact source to reprint
Date: 12/10/98
STAFFORD, Calif., Dec 10 (Reuters) -Environmental activist Julia Hill on
Thursday celebrated her first anniversary of being perched in the
branches of an ancient Californian redwood tree in a bid to save it from
being cut down.
Hill, 24, has been living in the 210-foot tree she calls ``Luna'' since
Dec. 10, 1997, to save it from the chain saws of Pacific LLumber, a
local timber company and a unit of Houston- based MAXXAM Inc.
The brown-haired preacher's daughter from Arkansas has said she will not
descend from Luna until she feels she has done everything in her power
to protect the tree, and she echoed that thought this week.
``Just as prayer led me up the tree and into this amazing experience, it
will just as surely lead me down when I've done everything I can,'' Hill
said in a cellphone interview from her aerie 180 feet (60 meters) above
the ground.
``In the beginning I did miss things like creature comforts but I don't
anymore,'' she said. ``One of the things I learned last winter was the
power of letting go. Why would I spend time missing something when
there's so much to appreciate up here?''
In the year since she ascended Luna, Hill has braved a rash of grueling
El Nino storms that nearly knocked her small six-by-eight foot (two-by-
three metre) plywood platform out of the tree.
She endured the taunts of both angry lumberjacks who tried to force her
to leave her perch and annoying radio deejays who awakened her
repeatedly with early-morning phone calls and goaded her into arguing
with them.
Despite these hurdles, Hill said her toughest challenge has been
watching the forest around her disappear.
``One of the most difficult things was climbing to the top of Luna and
being able to see an entire radio tower, which was once mostly hidden by
forest,'' Hill said.
Hill's supporters in the Earth First environmental group, who served as
her lifeline during the past year, planned several events to mark the
anniversary.
Former Grateful Dead members Mickey Hart and Bob Weir were scheduled to
perform at a sold-out benefit concert on Thursday evening, and several
hundred people were expected to turn out for a rally scheduled on
Saturday.
Pacific Lumber President and Chief Executive Officer John Campbell said
he remained concerned about Hill's welfare, particularly with the onset
of winter.
``We've got winter coming on and that's normally time of year we
experience snow, high winds and heavy rain and we think she's in a very
unsafe condition,'' Campbell said.
He added that Hill was trespassing on company property, but said Pacific
Lumber would not press charges against her if and when she ever came
down.
``She's breaking the law and we've cautioned her against that,'' he
said.
``I did write to her mother earlier this year asking for parental
guidance, but she never responded.''
Environmentalists like Hill contend there should be no more logging of
California's redwoods, the largest trees in the world. They have been
campaigning against companies like Pacific Lumber for about 12 years.
Copyright 1998 Reuters Limited.