Luna is the American name given in October 1997 to a 1,000-year-old, 200 foot tall coast redwood tree located near the community of Stafford in Humboldt County, California which was occupied for 738 days by forest activist Julia Butterfly Hill and saved by an agreement between Hill and the Pacific Lumber Company. The tree was vandalized about a year after the agreement but was repaired and survived.
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Location
Despite some news reports to the contrary, Luna is not located in the Headwaters Forest, a preserved old growth forest, but on a windswept ridge overlooking the community of Stafford, south of Scotia. Due to its proximity to the small community of Stafford, this tree has also been referred to as the "Stafford Giant." On New Year's Eve 1996, a landslide in Stafford caused by clearcut logging by Pacific Lumber Company (Maxxam) on steep slopes above the community resulted in most of the community buried up to 17 feet (5.2 m) in mud and tree debris; eight homes were completely destroyed.
History
The 1,000 year old lighting-struck tree was named by a group of Earth First! members, who built a small platform from salvaged wood to serve as a tree-sit platform. As the moon was rising at the time, they chose the name Luna, the Latin word for moon, to commemorate the event.
For 738 days, from December 10, 1997 to December 18, 1999, forest activist Julia Butterfly Hill lived on the platform in the tree, 180 feet (55 m) above the ground. Hill occupied Luna in order to save it and the surrounding grove from being clear-cut by the Pacific Lumber Company (owned by Maxxam Inc and Houston millionaire Charles Hurwitz). The Pacific Lumber company and Hill reached an agreement to save the tree and a 200 feet (61 m) buffer zone around it for $50,000 after which Hill left the tree. Later she wrote a book about her experiences in the giant redwood. Some of her predictions came true, as Maxxam failed in bankruptcy after cutting a 100-year timber reserve in 20 years, leaving employees and suppliers in the lurch.
In November 2000, an unknown vandal used a chainsaw to cut halfway through the tree. In 2001, Eureka civil engineer Steve Salzman headed Luna's "medical team" which designed and built a bracing system to help the tree withstand the extreme windstorms with peak winds between 60 and 100 miles per hour. They were assisted by Humboldt State University professor Steven Sillett.
In early 2002, naturalist Paul Donahue noted that Luna had survived the cut. Luna is currently under the stewardship of Sanctuary Forest, a Nonprofit Organization.