Julia Butterfly and Luna’s Legacy by Starfeather Everyone who faces fear, oppression, and violence yet remains rooted in love, commitment, and action is my hero. — Julia Butterfly Can you imagine what it might be like to live for two years 180 feet above ground in a giant redwood tree? It’s hard to imagine something that has never been done before, let alone do it, but this is exactly what Julia Butterfly did. Her accomplishment wasn’t done for fun or to break a world record. She gave herself, surrendered her self, in an effort to save a 1000-year-old being from being killed, and she succeeded. Most of us in the Pacific Northwest are aware of the fact that clearcutting of original forests is happening at an alarming rate, not just in our own backyard, but all over the world. In the last thousand years, we humans have consumed all but about three percent of the earth’s old-growth forests. The sound of the chainsaw is relentless, and lumber trucks roll trees to the mill as if there were an endless supply of forest. We feel helpless to stop this desecration and, at best, may support organizations like The Sierra Club or The Audubon Society. Frustration levels rise easily as governments — local, state, and federal — give token protection, while big corporations continue to cut, cut, cut for profits today with no thought for tomorrow. Julia Butterfly walked into the Headwaters redwood forest in 1997 and fell to her knees. She had found her cathedral. She cried and embraced the earth, with a sigh of relief and wonder; she had found Home. Her reverie was short-lived, however, for she soon learned that clear-cut logging was happening only a few miles away. Her new book, The Legacy of Luna, is her account of the more than two years of tree-sitting protest that followed. Tree sits are a way of protest that began in the ’90s, born out of frustration over bureaucratic paper shuffling while the cutting not only continued but, in fact, escalated. It is a tactic developed to delay logging, for it is illegal to log while any people are in a work area. It involves trespassing onto privately owned lumber company land, usually roping several trees together and setting up a platform high in the branches, and staying there as long as you can. When done well, it is nonviolent protest at its best. It had never succeeded in actually halting logging for good, but the hope was that it would buy more time. Julia had not come to California with the intention of protesting. At age 23, she was looking for her purpose in life, on a vision quest of sorts. She was answering her soul’s call to travel and find her unique way. Shortly after her first venture into the redwood forest, with a duct-taped harness around her, she climbed an ancient tree called Luna. EarthFirst! had begun the tree sit that October, two months earlier, and the protestors were tired and wanting a break. She volunteered, thinking she’d stay a month while they went home for Christmas and then regrouped. As she acclimated herself to living on a tiny platform covered by tarps, she began to realize that one month was not enough, that she could stay longer. The chance of this protest being effective was much greater if EarthFirst! Didn’t have to continually look for people who were willing and able to sit in a tree for days on end. Butterfly settled in for an indefinite length of time. She vowed not to come down until she had done all she could to stop the clearcutting, and save Luna. She took off her shoes and began to connect to the tree Herself. She began to feel safe walking around on the limbs, not confined to the platform alone. She had a support team that was created by many volunteers who had to hike up a steep mountainside to bring her food and basic supplies. She collected her own water from the constant precipitation that fell as heavy fog and rain collected on her tarps. The worst winter in recorded history in Northern California began, as El Niño rolled in. "What did you do all that time you were up there," one person asked Julia, "play solitaire?" She laughed, because what she did eventually was to create a platform of communication that would reach all around the world. She spent six hours a day talking on a cell phone being interviewed by everyone from a local radio station, to kindergarten classes, to movie stars and magazine writers, and just people, anyone who would listen or give her information. She understood the importance of getting the word out. She began receiving hundreds of letters every week, packed up by fellow activists. "One of the things I realized I could do was help bring people together. I received thousands of letters from people all over the world, all kinds of people, all religions, saying the same thing: ‘I’m glad you’re up there. I thought I was the only one who cared,’ so one thing that is clear to me is that we are not alone!" Julia also learned about silence and listening. She was often by herself, and she began deeply hearing nature. Luna began to talk to her. The first time this happened, she was in a near-hurricane storm and very frightened, so Luna told her to relax: "If you hold herself rigid, you will break. Look at the trees around you, and relax. Move like they do." It was no a picnic, living in a tree. Pacific Lumber Company, who wanted her out of there, confronted her on many occasions. Loggers and helicopters badgered her. They tried to starve her out, intimidate her, aggravate her, and frighten her. It didn’t work. Why? She said she prayed a lot, and she realized that she must always come from love. This was her hardest lesson, she said. "Sometimes it is a lot easier to be a tree-hugger than a people-hugger, when the people are cutting down the things you love right around you." But love she did. She wanted the loggers to know she was a real person, so she just kept talking to them and tried to get to know them, too. Eventually, she got her victory of sorts when some loggers came to work early, saying, "Hey, Butterfly! Wake up! We’ve got somethin’ for you!" They’d brought her a gift of fresh organic vegetables! While in the tree, she studied forestry and observed the working of an ecosystem firsthand. She recorded her thoughts on a battery-powered tape recorder; unbeknownst to her at the time, this would become her book. She is also a poet and an artist. She used the inside of cereal boxes to write on, decorating them with pieces of string, etc. These she donated to various environmental groups for fundraising. She generated $100,000 for non-profit organizations while she was up in Luna; sure beats a game of cards! The Legacy of Luna is an inspiring book. Julia is articulate, insightful, and grounded in her spirituality. It is an adventure story about transformation, for she tells her personal story about reaching a point of being completely broken, giving up everything (even her attachment to how the tree sit would end) in order to become fully centered in her spirit-call to service. "The trees, the plants, the animals, the children are all affected by our choices," she told me. "We have to speak for them. We have to be a voice for them." To me, Julia is a true heroine. She has a powerful voice and, now, a strong following. When I asked her how people could best support her work, the first thing she said was to look at our daily lives to discover what we could do to reduce, reuse, and recycle, to which she added "respect" and "rethink." She noted, not so subtly for latté-drinking Seattleites, that using throwaway paper coffee cups every day does not help the forests. She added, "I like my creature comforts, like everyone else, but when I find something I can give up, it gives me a kind of joy. We have to be willing to give up things that come to us at the expense of indigenous people around the world. We must question where our products come from." She cited The Gap as an example of a company that uses cheap child labor to make their products, investing their huge profits in logging concerns in California "when they could be conscious stewards of the land." As I talked with Julia, and later, when I heard her speak publicly, I realized how perfect she was for the assignment she has taken on. For starters, she is young, intelligent, strong-willed, and beautiful. She grew up a preacher’s daughter, with few extra possessions. She knew how to do without, and how to pray. She is a woman who talks on all levels about the environment. She expresses her emotions and believes in the power of love. She is putting it all together: science, spirit, and grounded experience. She is an activist, an idealist, and has hammered out a co-creative solution with a multimillion-dollar corporation. Somehow, when she says, "If you aren’t part of the solution, you are part of the problem," it doesn’t seem attacking. It makes sense, and you start looking around you to see what you can do to help, even if it’s just using a reusable mug! Julia Butterfly’s whole life seems to have prepared her for her stint in Luna. She was able to endure for two years what few, if any, others could have. When I asked her about this, she agreed, but she also took it a step further: "Now the thing I wonder about is, What did my time in Luna prepare me for?" The Legacy of Luna, I feel certain, is the first of many books by this strong woman, for she has much to say. And everyone is listening. Julia Butterfly Hill may be contacted through Circle of Life Foundation, P.O. Box 388, Garberville, CA 95542; visit their site at <http://www.circleoflifefoundation.org/> for more information. All profits from the sale of her book are donated to this foundation. Starfeather is an artist, teacher, healer, and visionary helping to reestablish the sacred feminine on the planet. Her passionate love for the earth is currently being expressed in her performance In Honor of Trees. She facilitates ongoing circles as well as spiritual retreats and gatherings. Contact her at Starfeather’s Gallery, 201 5th Avenue S., Edmonds, WA 98020, (425) 776-7595, or <Strfther@speakeasy.org>.