A woman lived up a 180-foot, 1,000-year-old tree for 2 years to save a forest from loggers. Meet Julia ‘Butterfly’ Hill.

Some of California’s redwood trees have been growing for thousands of years. Their red-brown trunks can soar into the sky up to 350 feet.

Over 25 years ago, environmental activist Julia “Butterfly” Hill was so captivated by these stunning trees that she decided to save them.

At the age of 23, Hill lived in a tree, which was dubbed “Luna,” in California in an act of civil disobedience. Her tree sit lasted from December 10, 1997, to December 23, 1999.

Hill decided to participate in the tree sit when the Pacific Lumber Company announced a new clear-cutting initiative that would greatly reduce the number of trees in the iconic forest.

A single cut tree could be worth $150,000 (over $291,000 today), Dateline reported at the time.

Hill is now an activist and an author. In 2000, she published a memoir, “The Legacy of Luna: The Story of a Tree, a Woman, and the Struggle to Save the Redwoods,” in which she documented her experience living in the tree.

This Earth Day, here are some of the details of Hill’s story.

Hill felt like she “didn’t belong” throughout her childhood and adolescence.

Hill’s father was a traveling preacher, so she spent much of her childhood moving around the US. 

She was given the nickname “Butterfly” at age 7 when a winged insect landed on her finger and stayed there during a lengthy hike.

When the San Francisco Chronicle asked Hill about her childhood in a 2009 interview, she described feelings of social isolation.

“I didn’t fit in. I didn’t understand other people,” she said. “I didn’t know how to relate.”

Her tenacity helped as she became involved in activism.

“I have been stubborn and getting into trouble since I was 2, but I learned how to redirect that into good causes,” Hill told the Chronicle. 

After surviving a car crash in her early 20s, Hill reevaluated her priorities and decided to dedicate her life to environmental activism.

In 1996, a drunken driver hit Hill’s car from behind. As a result of the near-fatal crash, she had difficulty speaking and walking for almost a full year. During her recovery process, Hill took an interest in environmental preservation.

“It took 10 months of physical and cognitive therapy to recover from the wreck, and during that time I realized I wanted to find a more powerful purpose for being here on this planet,” Hill told Grist in 2006.

Soon after, she took a road trip with friends, which led her to California and its redwoods, she said.

“When I entered the ancient redwoods for the first time, I dropped to my knees and began to cry,” she later wrote for The New York Times.

On December 10, 1997, she climbed an 180-foot-tall redwood tree in protest of the Pacific Lumber Company.

After connecting with like-minded activists at a protest in Eureka, California, Hill learned of an opportunity to participate in a tree sit. She would join two other activists, staying in a 1,000-year-old tree named “Luna.”

The initiative was sponsored by Earth First!, an organization that shared her passion for preserving redwoods.

After a few days of the tree sit, Hill became ill and had to leave. When the two remaining tree-sitters left Luna weeks later, Hill volunteered to ascend the 180-foot tree once again.

Although Earth First! initially offered support, Hill continued her tree-sit even after they pulled their resources. A friend began periodically ascending the tree to supply her with food. 

Pacific Lumber Company responded with “intimidation tactics,” such as flying helicopters nearby, cutting down ropes from nearby trees, and stationing security guards at the base of Luna, the Los Angeles Times reported in 1999.

Hill lived in cramped, windy, and wet conditions on two 6-by-6-foot platforms, often with only flying squirrels for company.

In her book, Hill described surviving a 70-mile-per-hour windstorm that lasted for 16 hours and destroyed the tarps that sheltered her.

Even when it wasn’t storming, her platforms were damp. “Hill was never truly dry during her two years in Luna,” the San Francisco Chronicle‘s  Glen Martin wrote in 1999.

The bottoms of her bare feet were always sticky with sap, which actually helped her cling to the branches. What she most missed were hot showers, she told The New York Times in 1998. She had only taken a few sponge baths by then.

A group of five men served as her support system, delivering essentials to the tree twice a week. Their provisions included food, fuel for her stove, mail, and batteries for her cellphone. Occasionally, other protesters would also join her to sit in the tree.

However, most of her contact was with the wildlife around her, she told the Chronicle. That included the flying squirrels who would rescue any crumbs she dropped.

“They knew that when the candle went out, that was the time to make as much of a mess as possible and tapdance on my head,” she said.

The lengthy tree sit captured media attention.

From Dateline spotlights to stories in The New York Times, Hill’s activism made headlines both nationally and internationally. The Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, Vancouver Sun, and Globe and Mail all covered her stay.

Reporters and photographers who wanted to meet with her had to scale the redwood.

“Physically, it was demanding,” reporter Justin Acri told KUAF recently.

In December 1999, Hill reached an agreement with the Pacific Lumber Company to preserve Luna.

The agreement guaranteed that Luna and the trees within a 200-foot radius would be preserved, but already-felled trees would remain the company’s property. 

Hill then descended Luna, ending her 738-day tree sit.

In 2007, the Pacific Lumber Company filed for bankruptcy, citing the high costs of environmental regulations, the Los Angeles Times reported.

While living in Luna, Hill founded Circle of Life, an organization that teaches people to live a more environmentally conscious lifestyle.

“It is so right within our grasp to be the more peaceful, healthy, sustainable world and country — it’s so close — and yet the gap within that possibility is so far,” Hill told the San Francisco Chronicle in 2009. “And for a sensitive person like me, that’s painful.”

In 2000, a documentary titled “Butterfly,” which chronicled Hill’s experience living in a tree, premiered on TV.

Doug Wolens directed the film, which aired on PBS.

That same year, she also published a memoir, “The Legacy of Luna: The Story of a Tree, a Woman, and the Struggle to Save the Redwoods,” about her experience living in the redwood. 

In 2012, actor Rachel Weisz told The Hollywood Reporter that she tried for years to get a film made about Hill’s protest, calling it “an impossible movie to get made.”

In 2006, Hill joined another tree sit in an effort to save an urban farm.

She joined high-profile figures such as actor Daryl Hannah, singer Joan Baez, and activist John Quigley in the action. The garden’s farmers were under threat of eviction.

This attempt was less successful. In June 2006, the farmers were evicted, and bulldozers moved in that July, the Los Angeles Daily News reported. Some of the farmers relocated to other spaces in the city.

Passionate about environmental issues, Hill is an outspoken vegan.

“I am a joyous vegan, and an avid cook and un-cook. I love preparing food that is healthy for people, the planet, and animals, and tastes damn good,” Hill told Grist in 2006.

She has also spoken about her mission to get people to stop using single-use items like napkins and takeout containers.

“I have walked on the earth that is connected to the thread at the other end of those horrific choices, and I am not being overdramatic when I say disposables are weapons of mass destruction,” she said.

In 2024, Hill celebrated the 25th anniversary of her tree sit.

In 2024, Hill and Sanctuary Forest, a land trust that oversees Luna, held a fundraiser coinciding with the 25th anniversary of the end of her tree sit.

Her story continues to have an impact in other ways as well.

Idina Menzel‘s new Broadway musical, “Redwood,” was inspired by Hill and the trees themselves.

“Redwoods thrive because of their root systems. They interconnect and hold each other up,” Menzel told Playbill earlier this year.

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