(Off Topic - d wants to know "Why" people do things.) Sad.
Why should they or anyone give this man the time of day??
Why should anyone give Julia Butterfly the time of day??
abcnews.go.com
Still Up in the Branches
Activist Marks Two Years Up High
Tree-sitter Julia Butterfly climbs near the split trunk of an ancient
redwood tree she named "Luna," near Stafford, Calif. Butterfly has lived
in the tree for about two years in an effort to save it from being cut
down. (Shaun Walker/AP Photo)
By Michelle Locke, The Associated Press
S T A F F O R D, Calif., Dec. 10 Two years ago today, a
23-year-old preacher's daughter climbed 180 feet into the branches of an
old growth redwood, determined to save it from a woodsman's chain saw.
Since then, Julia Hill, known to her friends as Julia Butterfly,
has changed her life. She has also tried to change the way people look
at California's old forests through an Internet campaign and interviews
with reporters around the world.
This month, one more thing may be changing: She may be coming down
from the tree she calls Luna.
My feet will not touch the ground until there is a signature on
paper saying that they've protected the area but ... I'm cautiously
hopeful, she said.
No Clear End in Sight
It wasn't clear when or if Hill's treetop vigil will end. In the
past, she and the Pacific Lumber Co., owners of the property where Luna
stands, have been close to a resolution only to have the deal stall.
Neither side will discuss specifics, but the proposed agreement
reportedly would have Hill and her supporters paying $50,000 to the
company in return for a logging ban at the treesitting site. The money
would then be donated to Humboldt State University for forestry
research. Pacific Lumber also wants signed statements from Hill that the
company hopes will discourage copycats.
We want her to be safe but we are not going to agree to anything
that encourages treesitting, promotes treesitting, allows for the
commercialization of treesitting or is unfair to our employees, said
company spokesman Josh Reiss.
In March, Pacific Lumber and federal and state governments signed a
$480 million deal to purchase an old-growth grove in the nearby
Headwaters Forest and turn it into a public preserve.
Missing the Earth
Hill stayed put, disappointed that the deal does not go far enough to
protect the forest and concerned that Luna is not in the protected area.
What she's missed most is the earth beneath her feet.
I can't imagine how incredible and magical it's going to feel just
to be able to touch the solid earth again, she said.
On a cool fall day, the forest Hill calls home soars above the
mists, thousands of dark green spires brushing against a pale gray sky.
To the west, the Pacific hugs the sandy shoulders of the remote Lost
Coast, about 280 miles north of San Francisco.
Also visible is the red-brown scar of a mudslide that destroyed
seven homes in the small community of Stafford. Activists blame the
slide on clear-cut logging. The company says it was a natural
occurrence.
Monolith of Burnt Bark
At Luna's base, the only sound is the rushing murmur of the wind. About
15 feet across and more than 18 stories high, the tree is a vast, brown
stretch of bark, one side of its trunk blackened and gouged, probably by
fire.
Suddenly, the silence is broken as a supporter who goes by the name
of Spruce lets out an eerie call, a signal that visitors have arrived.
Hill yodels back, then lowers a battered black bag containing a
walkie-talkie over which she cheerily announces, My phone's ringing.
I'm going to grab it real quick and be right with you.
Hill doesn't have a lot of the comforts of home on her 6-by-8-foot
platform. She cooks vegan meals those with no animal products on a
propane stove, uses a bucket for a bathroom, takes sponge baths and is
never completely warm on wintry days. But she's got a cell phone to
keep in touch with the outside world; supporters bring in batteries and
food and take out her replies to the 300 or so people who write every
week.
In spare moments she reads, writes and listens to a community radio
station by way of a hand-cranked radio.
Elements of Nature and Body
For exercise, she climbs the tree and, failing that, does sit-ups and
push-ups. Dealing with wild winter storms and the dank, foggy cold
takes laughter, love, prayer and layers of clothing.
Right now, I'm wearing three pants, three shirts, two jackets, two
scarfs, a hat and gloves, she said Wednesday as temperatures hovered in
the 40s.
She's been interviewed scores of times. She's been visited by actor
Woody Harrelson and singers Bonnie Raitt and Joan Baez. She's written a
book, The Legacy of Luna, due out in April.
I laugh hysterically every time someone thinks I'm bored or
lonely, because I am busier than I have ever been in my entire life,
she said.
Ecoterrorist Accusation
Hill has her detractors a full-page ad in Thursday's Times-Standard of
Eureka taken out by a self-described spokesman for The True Redwood
Friends urged Pacific Lumber: Do not let her win. Do not give in to
eco-terrorism.
But she also has supporters like 28-year-old Anne Fitzpatrick, who
made the uphill trek to the tree despite having had most of one lung
removed in March.
She really inspires me, said Fitzpatrick, who often logs on to
Hill's Web site. I sit in my living room ... and I think, 'She's in the
tree right now, right at this moment. She's cold and I'm here.'
What happens if Hill decides to come in from the cold?
Before she was a treesitter, Hill was learning the restaurant
business in Fayetteville, Ark. That life ended with a near-fatal car
wreck that sent her on a pilgrimage west to the woods.
She's not sure what she might do next, but expects it will have
something to do with protecting the environment.
I climbed up into this tree and in the eyes of the world, I was a
nobody, she said. Without my meaning to, I've become this figurehead,
this spokesperson and that's opened up a lot of doors and
possibilities.
Copyright 1999 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. ABCNEWS.com
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