Julia Butterfly Hill

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This article is about Julia Butterfly Hill. For the species of butterfly, see Dryas julia.

Julia Butterfly Hill (born 18 February, 1974) is an American activist and environmentalist. Hill is best known for living in a 180-foot-tall, 600-year-old California Redwood tree for 738 days between 10 December, 1997 and 18 December, 1999. Hill lived in the tree, 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 Jonesboro, Arkansas, Hill suffered a mild brain injury in a car crash a year before her tree-sitting experience.^[1] She embarked on a spiritual quest afterwards, and this eventually lead 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 3-acre 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 (a somewhat controversial action amongst fellow activists), as stipulated by the resolution.

In 1999, Hill and other activists founded the organization Circle of Life Foundation.

Hill was 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. Trey Anastasio and Tom Marshall wrote a song called Kissed by Mist about Julia. The Red Hot Chili Peppers song "Can't Stop" contains the line "J. Butterfly is in the treetops". The first season of Penn & Teller's controversial program of skepticism, Bullshit!, featured her in a rather negative light.

In May 2006, Hill, Daryl Hannah, and Joan Baez were among the activists who took up residence in a walnut tree at the South Central Community Garden, Los Angeles, where they claim working-class immigrants tended crops, but that landowner Ralph Horowitz wished to develop.

Hill is the author of the book The Legacy of Luna and co-author of One Makes the Difference.