|
| |
Ancient Forests are complex ecosystems providing a crucial habitat for hundreds of plant and animal species, many found nowhere else on Earth. And yet our majestic trees, untouched for thousands of years, are falling daily to the chainsaw. As much as 90% of these ancient forests have already been wiped out and what remains is cut at a rate of several square miles each week. -- from the Sierra Club website
The following piece was written during the period that Julia Hill lived atop Luna. She has since come "down to earth" and is leading CFOG (Californians for Old Growth). For more information go to http://www.ancienttrees.org. Julia Hill is an intelligent, good-humored and inspiring 24-year-old who happens to live in a tree. The tree is a 1,000 year old coast redwood in the hills above Stafford, California. It has been given the name Luna by the activists who climbed it on the full moon night of October 5, 1997. They mounted a plywood platform in Luna,180 feet above the forest floor, and it has served as the base for the longest tree-sit in history. Maxxam Corporation, who owns the land where Luna lives, has tried to cut the tree down. Maxxam also attempted to intimidate and force the activists to leave the tree. While the other activists from Earth First came down after a few weeks, Julia Hill decided to stay. Julia has been in the tree for over 13 months and her feet have not touched the ground. She has vowed that she will not come down until there is every assurance that Luna will remain standing, and she has done all she can to raise awareness on the issue of protecting these ancient forests. Visiting Julia Hill on New Year's Day, 1999, a beautiful sunny day, it is easy to see how she is able to maintain her positive spirit. When asked if she ever gets lonely up there among the branches of Luna she replies, "I have the universe to keep me company."
To answer the obvious questions about Julia's "in tree" experience: she cooks, eats, sleeps, writes, bathes, reads, prays, socializes, sneezes, and carries on all the other necessary human functions -- in the tree. Watching her navigate the branches and the massive trunk of Luna, it seems as though she were born in the tree. The sound of bells accompany her movements throughout the limbs and at times one feels as though they are in the presence of a story-book character. But Julia is very much of this world. She is without question an extraordinary woman. Her spirit, will and determination are the stuff that legends are made of. Born and raised the daughter of a non-denominational preacher, Julia didn't have the traditional American-style upbringing. After rebellious teenage years and a stint in college, she moved to another town. Shortly after that, Julia was in a car accident which caused massive injuries to her head and skull. It took 10 months for her to recuperate. Julia's life parallels that of naturalist John Muir, who, after recovering his eye-sight due to an industrial accident, packed a sack and decided to walk from Ohio to Florida -- and the course of history was forever changed by him. For Julia, it was California and the redwoods that called to her. She had considered going to Jamaica or on a trip around the world, but by chance, a group of friends were headed to Northern California. She went along. She says that she was so overwhelmed when she encountered the majesty of the 200-foot redwood trees, that she fell to her knees and began to weep. The saga of Julia's occupation of Luna would not be complete without describing the antagonist in this story -- Pacific Lumber Company (PALCO), the division of Maxxam Corp. responsible for logging. There is nothing dishonorable about logging, but the methods that PALCO has used to maximize profit on their lands has caused massive ecological damage to a place that should be considered sacred.
The town of Stafford, which lies below the mountain where Luna lives, experienced a massive mudslide due to unsound clear-cut logging practices. Homes were washed away in the torrent of water and mud and families were displaced. A lawsuit is pending, but it should not take a judge or jury very long to determine that Maxxam must pay and must cease this kind of logging in the future. PALCO has violated so many federal laws as a result of their logging practices, that their license to cut trees has been revoked. Yet, the drone of the chainsaw continues as they hire contract loggers to do the dirty work of falling the majestic, some might say holy, trees. The steep two-mile hike up the mountain where Luna stands gives witness to the ugly, destructive practices of PALCO in their pursuit of logging a mountain of its wood resources. Hundred-year-old trees by the dozens are strewn and uprooted among the mud and brush -- casualties of an operation which seeks to cut the old-growth redwoods and ignore the environment where they live. The carnage reminds one of the Civil War photos of Matthew Brady -- bodies scattered throughout the landscape -- disorder in the shadow of man's confusion. After climbing the last steep yards to the peak, Luna stands before you. On the second day visiting Julia, a visitor named Dan scaled the tree to help her repair solar panels, which charge the batteries to her cell phone. Julia does interviews throughout the day to raise awareness about the plight of these trees.
Julia's voice gets serious when she speaks of the early days in Luna. "The first few months were really hard. I was hit everyday by the storms and it challenged me," said Julia. Since those days, many reporters and activists have visited her in the tree -- Time Magazine, NPR, ABC, and most all the major news organizations. Julia's message is spreading. Children in schools around the world write to her and show their support. People around the globe have tuned in to Julia as if Luna were a giant radio antenna sending out her message through a thousand cosmic waves. Julia often refers to "the spirit of the universal being"-- a connection she feels more concretely than most--as she absorbs the energy of the sun, the moon, the stars, the sky and the land around her during every moment of her existence. She says that her first introduction to the spirituality of the woods came from an interest in Druidism and the wisdom of ancient Ireland. When asked about her Celtic roots, she alludes to a heritage similar to many Americans -- a little of everything. Her father has Irish and Spanish roots and her mother is of German and Italian ancestry. This seems significant in that most of her ancestors are at their core, Celts and Gauls--peoples who had a deep spiritual connection to the woods, the earth and especially trees.
It is not hard to imagine Julia as a major character from Celtic mythology. There was in fact a Celtic myth of an individual who took up residence in a tree to hide from the Irish King Oisin. There in his tree top he sat, eating an apple, giving half to a stag who lived below, while an eagle perched on his shoulder and a trout swam in a silver bowl, which he held in his arm. The story goes that when Oisin came across him in the woods, he didn't recognize him as the foe he had been pursuing for many years. Such was the transformative power of life in a tree. Julia Hill is an individual who has been transformed by living in a tree. She speaks of times during storms when Luna spoke to her in a calm soothing voice. Julia has developed a sisterhood with Luna and the strength from that bond has motivated all of the activists around her and inspired legions of future environmental activists. Her regular visitors inlcude a few chipmunks, some mice, eagles, crows, hawks, and for a while a flying squirrel. Although the squirrel moved on during the migratory season Julia noted. Her other visitors include a core group of of Earth First activists.
Julia's encounters with loggers and critics are peppered with examples of her adherance to gentle spiritual principles. Her act of civil disobedience is motivated by a love of the universe and all that is in it. Julia Hill is preaching the same message that millions of Americans hear on a daily basis from evangilists, ministers, priests and spiritual leaders from all faiths. That message is the message of love. "Love in any language is fluently spoken here," is a line from a song that Julia learned as a girl and it is evident that she believes in the power of that love deep in her core.
A Celtic bard name Keelta, who was said to have been baptized by St. Patrick, spoke of the deeds of his fellow Fians the following way -- "Truth was in our hearts and strength in our arms, and what we said, that we fulfilled." That seems to sum up in a sentence what Julia Hill is about. May she prevail.
Here are important sites to learn more about Luna and the effort to save the redwoods: www.lunatree.org and www.headwatersforest.org. For information on forest preservation, go to the Sierra Club website at http://www.sierraclub.org/forests/.
| Home | Cultural | Environmental | Musical | Ordinary | | Contact Us | About the Authors |
© Copyright 2007 fiftythings |
||||||||||||||||||
