Julia Butterfly Hill

Early life

Hill's father was a traveling minister who went from town to town, bringing his family with him. Until she was about ten years old, Hill lived in a 32-foot (9.8 m) camper with her father Dale, mother Kathy, and brothers Mike and Dan. Julia is the middle child. While traveling with her family, Hill often explored rivers by campgrounds. When Hill was seven years old, she and her family were taking a hike one day when a butterfly landed on her finger and stayed with her for the duration of the hike. From that day on, her nickname became "Butterfly". She decided to use that as her nickname for the rest of her life.

When Hill was in middle school, her family stopped traveling and settled in Jonesboro, Arkansas. In August 1996, at age 22, Hill suffered a near-fatal car crash. At the time, Hill was acting as the designated driver for a friend who had been drinking. Her friend's car was hit from behind by a drunk driver. The steering wheel of the car penetrated Hill's skull. It took almost a year of intensive therapy before she regained the ability to speak and walk normally. She said:

As I recovered, I realized that my whole life had been out of balance...I had graduated high school at 16, and had been working nonstop since then, first as a waitress, then as a restaurant manager. I had been obsessed by my career, success, and material things. The crash woke me up to the importance of the moment, and doing whatever I could to make a positive impact on the future. The steering wheel in my head, both figuratively and literally, steered me in a new direction in my life.

Hill embarked on a spiritual quest afterwards, leading her to the environmental cause opposed to the destruction of the redwood forests in Humboldt County, California.

Tree sit

After recuperating from her accident, Hill took a road trip to California and attended a reggae fundraiser to save the forests. A group of "front-liners" had been rotating tree sitters in and out of giant redwoods in Humboldt County every couple days to stave off Pacific Lumber Co. loggers who were clear-cutting. Organizers wanted someone to stay in the tree one week. "Nobody else would volunteer so they had to pick me", said Hill.

Originally, Hill was not officially affiliated with any environmental organization, deciding by herself to undertake civil disobedience. Soon, Hill was actively supported by Earth First!, among other organizations, and by volunteers.

On December 10, 1997, Hill ascended 180 feet (55 m) the redwood tree Luna.

An hour and a half after reaching the base of the tree, we got the last of the provisions up. By then it was midnight. Finally, I was able to put on the harness and ascend Luna. It seemed an exhausting eternity before I reached the top. When I finally got there, I untangled myself from the harness and looked around for a place to collapse.

Hill lived on two 6-by-6-foot (1.8 by 1.8 m) platforms for 738 days. Luna's trunk was her sidewalk and exercise treadmill. Hill learned many survival skills while living in Luna, such as "seldom washing the soles of her feet, because the sap helped her feet stick to the branches better." Hill used solar-powered cell phones for radio interviews, became an "in-tree" correspondent for a cable television show, and hosted TV crews to protest old-growth clear cutting. With ropes, Hill hoisted up survival supplies brought by an eight-member support crew. To keep warm, Hill wrapped herself tight in a sleeping bag, leaving only a small hole for breathing. For meals, Hill used a single-burner propane stove. Throughout her ordeal, Hill weathered freezing rains and 40 mph (64 km/h) winds from El Niño, helicopter harassment, a ten-day siege by company security guards, and attempted intimidation by angry loggers.

A resolution was reached in 1999 when the Pacific Lumber Company agreed to preserve Luna and all trees within a 200-foot (61 m) buffer zone. In exchange, Hill agreed to vacate the tree. In addition, the $50,000 that Hill and other activists raised during the cause was given to the logging company, as stipulated by the resolution. The $50,000 Earth First! paid to Pacific Lumber was then donated to Humboldt State University as part of the agreement for research into sustainable forestry.

Vandals later cut the tree with a chainsaw. A gash in the 200-foot (61 m)-tall redwood was discovered in November 2000 by one of Hill's supporters. Observers at the scene said the cut measured 32 inches (810 mm) deep and 19 feet (5.8 m) around the base, somewhat less than half the circumference of the tree. The gash was treated with an herbal remedy, and the tree was stabilized with steel cables. As of spring 2007, the tree was doing well with new growth each year. Caretakers routinely climb the tree to check its condition and to maintain the steel guywires.

Post-tree sit

Since her tree sit, Hill has become a motivational speaker (holding some 250 events a year), a best-selling author, and the co-founder of the Circle of Life Foundation (which helped organize We The Planet, an eco-friendly music tour) and the Engage Network, a nonprofit that trains small groups of civic leaders to work toward social change.

Ecuador oil pipeline protest

On July 16, 2002, Hill was jailed in Quito, Ecuador, outside the offices of Occidental Petroleum, for protesting a proposed oil pipeline that would penetrate a virgin Andean cloud forest that teems with rare birds. "The cloud forest is stunning," said Hill. "It's this deep, lush green, spangled with explosions of red, yellow and purple from the flowers, birds and insects. But the environmental destruction we saw along the pipelines that had already been built was horrendous." Ecuadorian President Gustavo Noboa commented: "The little gringos have been arrested, including the old cockatoo who climbs trees." Hill was later deported from Ecuador.

Tax redirection

In 2003, Hill became a proponent of tax redirection, resisting payment of about $150,000 in federal taxes, donating that money to after-school programs, arts and cultural programs, community gardens, programs for Native Americans, alternatives to incarceration, and environmental protection programs. She said:

I actually take the money that the IRS says goes to them and I give it to the places where our taxes should be going. And in my letter to the IRS I said: "I'm not refusing to pay my taxes. I'm actually paying them but I'm paying them where they belong because you refuse to do so".

Farm sale protest

In 2006, Hill protested the sale of the South Central Farm in an attempt to save the 14-acre (5.7 ha) farm from developers.

Looking forward

In an April 2009 interview, Hill pondered what would come next for her:

The tree-sit and action since created this very particular role that Julia Butterfly Hill fulfills. And, because I'm a person committed to growth, to looking for where my edge is, that role is now too narrow for me. But it's hard to figure out what's next because there's this entire reality that's been created around this role that I play. And I'm not discounting that role – I've been able to help communities that I love very much. And at the same time, I'm looking for what's next for me, and it's so easy to stay in that role that myself and this world co-created together. But I just know that there's aspects of it that need to shed.

Popular culture

Hill has been the subject of several documentaries, interviews, and books, including her own memoirs, The Legacy of Luna; and has influenced numerous musicians.

In Penn & Teller's first season of their documentary television show, Bullshit, Hill was interviewed and her motivations were questioned by Penn Jillette and Patrick Moore, a former founder of Greenpeace.

On December 10, 1998, a benefit concert was played at the Mateel Community Center in Redway, California, during Julia's "tree sit". Artists performing were Bob Weir and Mark Karan as an acoustic duet, the Steve Kimock Band, and the Mickey Hart Band. Julia took part in the event, reading her poem "Luna" via telephone while the Mickey Hart Band was performing "The Dancing Sorcerer".

The character Sierra Tierwater in the 2000 novel A Friend of the Earth by T. Coraghessan Boyle is based on Hill.

Hill was the subject of the documentary Butterfly (2000) broadcast on PBS POV. She is also featured in the documentary film Tree-Sit: The Art of Resistance. Both films document her time in the redwood tree.

The twelfth-season episode of The Simpsons called "Lisa the Tree Hugger" was conceived when writer Matt Selman heard a news story about Hill.

A film adaptation of The Legacy of Luna, to be directed by Laurie Collyer and star Rachel Weisz, became stuck in development hell, although Weisz actively worked towards getting the project off the ground.

The main character of the Swedish children's book Julia räddar skogen (Julia saves the forest) by Niklas Hill and Anna Palmqvist (2017) is named after Hill. The book is about a child who occupies a tree in order to hinder the construction of a new highway.

Music

Several musicians have been inspired by Hill and her activism and have written songs about her: