A Woman Lived 738 days on Top of a Thousand-year-old Redwood to Avoid It Being Logged Down
What would you do to prevent a majestic 1,500-year-old tree from falling victim to a logging saw? Would you risk your life, inhabiting a space in the heights no bigger than a single bed, in the open, going cold, hungry, pain, and isolation? How long would it last?
Well, Julia “Butterfly” Hill, an environmental activist, lived on top of a thousand-year-old redwood tree in Northern California for 738 days to prevent it from being cut down. She only agreed to put an end to her incredible protest and come down from the tree after winning her battle to protect it, as well as the area around it.
Several activists have occupied trees, but Julia’s protest is believed to have lasted the longest. “I think whoever wants to cut down one of these trees should be ordered to live in it for two years,” she declared about her feat.
Redwoods are monumental trees, native to California, United States.They can grow up to 75 meters in height, have trunks nine meters in diameter, and live for thousands of years.
“When I first came to California and entered the first ancestral forest, I was very touched and shocked by how beautiful and sacred they are and feel,” Julia said. Unfortunately, since the colonization of the Californian territory by western cultures, the continuous logging of this natural resource decimated the forests.
