The story of Julia "Butterfly", a girl who lived in a tree for 2 years
In 1997, Julia Lorraine Hill, known by the nickname Julia "Butterfly", climbed a tree and spent more than two years on it - until the end of 1999. Why did she do it? Read in our material.
Julia Lorraine Hill was born in Mount Vernon on February 18, 1974. The girl's father served as a preacher, so the family - Julia's mother and her two brothers - often had to move from place to place. They lived in campsites in a small van, thanks to which the children spent most of their time outdoors. So Julia had a special craving for nature, especially the girl liked to explore the rivers.
Once, during another walk to the river near their camp, a butterfly landed on Julia's finger and did not fly away until the very end of the trip. Then the girl got her nickname "Butterfly", which stuck to her for the rest of her life.
Only when Julia went to high school, her family "settled" in one place - in the town of Jonesboro, Arkansas. Here the girl graduated, got a job as a waitress, and then as a restaurant manager. In her own words, then she was obsessed with money, a career and other material values, but one day everything changed.
In August 1996, Julia Hill was in a serious car accident. They were driving with a friend when a drunk driver of another car "flew" into their car from behind. The collision was so strong that the steering wheel literally pierced Julia's skull. It took a whole year of intensive care for the girl to start talking and walking again.
As Julia herself says, this accident completely changed her life.
After the recovery, the girl took the spiritual path and began to engage in "search for herself." She realized that there are too many things in the world that are more important than money and other material values. One of these for Julia was nature.
After finally recovering from the accident, Julia Hill went to California, where she attended a reggae festival aimed at raising funds to save the forests. The convention attendees sat in trees that the Pacific Lumber Company planned to cut down. Every couple of days the activists took turns in the trees to prevent the deforestation.
The redwoods stood on a windswept ridge that towered over the village of Stafford. On New Year's Eve 1996, there was a landslide in Stafford caused by the deforestation of the Pacific Lumber Company. Most of the village was covered with mud, eight houses were completely destroyed. The organizers of the event wanted someone to stay in the tree for one week.
So, on December 10, 1997, Julia Hill climbed a 1000-year-old sequoia, which was given the name of the Moon. On this tree, instead of the promised week, she spent 738 days. While living on the Moon, Hill learned many survival skills, such as "rarely washing her feet because it made it easier to stick to a tree."
To communicate with the outside world, she used a cell phone, which she charged using a solar battery. Thus, she could communicate with journalists and speak out in protest against deforestation. With the help of ropes, Hill hauled up the survival supplies that other caring activists had collected for her.
Julia basked, tightly wrapped in a sleeping bag, leaving only a small hole for breathing. And for cooking I used a camp stove with one burner.
Throughout her stay on the tree, Julia "Butterfly" experienced many trials: heavy rains, winds of 64 km / h, the El Niño phenomenon, siege by company employees and much more ... Despite this, the girl continued to stay on the tree until she achieved its purpose.
In 1999, the Pacific Lumber Company agreed to keep Luna's sequoia, as well as nearby trees, from being cut down. In addition, the $50,000 that Hill and other activists raised during the action was donated to a logging company and later to Humboldt State University as part of a sustainable forestry research agreement.
In 2000, unknown vandals cut the moon with a chainsaw. However, the activists managed to save the tree. In 2001, Eureka civil engineer Steve Saltzman led Luna's "medical team" to design and build a bracing system to help the tree withstand strong hurricanes with maximum wind speeds of 27 to 45 m/s.
Now the moon is under the protection of the non-profit organization Sanctuary Forest. Activists regularly climb the tree to check on its condition, but overall, the Moon is doing well.
Julia Hill after this story discovered a new kind of activity - she became a motivational speaker. She hosts over 250 events a year where she trains other activists to work for social change. In addition, she wrote several books and became the organizer of several foundations involved in the conservation of nature.