Honestly, most people think the story of Julia Butterfly Hill and her redwood tree ended the moment she climbed down. You’ve probably seen the grainy 90s footage. A young woman with matted hair, perched on a tiny wooden platform 180 feet in the air, defying a massive logging corporation. It’s the ultimate David vs. Goliath setup. But if you think she just walked away and the tree lived happily ever after, you’re missing the darkest—and most inspiring—part of the saga.
Julia Hill didn't just sit in a tree. She lived in Luna, a 1,000-year-old ancient redwood, for 738 days.
That’s two years of El Niño storms, freezing rain, and harassment from the Pacific Lumber Company. They flew helicopters so close to her that the downdraft nearly tossed her out. They used floodlights to keep her awake and tried to starve her out by blocking her ground support crew. She didn't budge. She basically became part of the canopy.
Why the Julia Butterfly Hill redwood tree protest actually worked
A lot of protests are just noise. This one was different because it was intimate. Julia had a spiritual epiphany after a near-fatal car accident in 1996. Her head had literally collided with the steering wheel, and the recovery changed her. When she headed west to California, she wasn't an "activist" yet. She was a seeker.
When she heard that a grove of ancient trees near Stafford was slated for clear-cutting, she volunteered for what was supposed to be a two-week "tree-sit."
Two weeks turned into 105 weeks.
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The strategy was simple: the loggers couldn't cut the tree as long as a human being was in it. But Julia did more than just occupy space. She used a solar-powered cell phone to call into radio shows and TV networks. She turned a single redwood tree into a global symbol of the "Timber Wars."
The $50,000 deal
On December 18, 1999, Julia finally touched the ground. She hadn't walked on Earth for over two years. The deal she struck was controversial at the time. To save Luna and a 200-foot buffer zone around it, she and her supporters had to pay the Pacific Lumber Company $50,000.
Some fellow activists hated this. They felt like they were "buying back" something that shouldn't have been for sale in the first place. But for Julia, it was the only way to ensure the saws stayed silent.
The chainsaw attack: Luna’s near-death experience
A year after the deal, the unthinkable happened. In November 2000, an unknown person hiked up the ridge with a chainsaw. They didn't want the wood; they wanted to send a message.
The vandal cut a gash 32 inches deep into Luna's trunk. It went nearly halfway through the tree.
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It was a devastating wound. Experts thought the tree would topple in the next winter storm. The cut severed the "veins" that transport water and nutrients from the roots to the needles. But the community that Julia built didn't give up. A team of arborists and engineers, led by Steve Salzman, treated the tree like a trauma patient.
They used massive steel brackets and cables to "stitch" the tree together. It was a weird, industrial-looking fix for a natural giant, but it worked.
Where is the Julia Butterfly Hill redwood tree today?
If you’re driving through Humboldt County, you can’t just walk up to Luna. She sits on a ridge above the town of Stafford, California. The land is strictly protected under a conservation easement held by a nonprofit called Sanctuary Forest.
Kinda ironic, right? One of the most famous trees in the world is off-limits to the public.
The reason is simple: redwoods have incredibly shallow, sensitive root systems. If thousands of tourists trekked up that hill to touch the bark, they’d eventually compress the soil and kill the very tree Julia sacrificed two years of her life to save.
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Current status of the tree
- Health: Luna is still alive and growing, though she bears a massive scar.
- Stewardship: Sanctuary Forest monitors the tree annually.
- Access: Strictly prohibited to protect the root zone and prevent further vandalism.
- Visibility: You can actually see her from Highway 101 near the Stafford exit if you know where to look (look southwest toward the ridge).
The real legacy of Julia Butterfly Hill
Julia didn't stop with redwoods. She’s been involved in everything from oil pipeline protests in Ecuador to tax resistance. But she often talks about how the "tree-sit" changed her brain. She suffered from severe asthma and frostbite after the protest. She’s also been open about the struggle of transitioning back to a world of "stuff" and noise.
Her book, The Legacy of Luna, remains a staple for anyone interested in environmental ethics. It’s not just a memoir; it’s a blueprint for how one person can leverage their own body to stop a corporate machine.
Actionable steps for modern conservation
If you want to honor the work Julia did, you don't necessarily have to live in a tree for two years. Most people can't. But the Julia Butterfly Hill redwood tree story offers a few practical takeaways for 2026:
- Support Land Trusts: Groups like Sanctuary Forest are the ones doing the "boring" legal work of holding conservation easements. This is what keeps trees standing after the cameras leave.
- Focus on the 3%: Only about 3% of the original old-growth redwood forest remains. Prioritize protecting "virgin" forests over just planting new saplings.
- Use Your Voice (and Tech): Julia used a clunky 90s cell phone to change the world. Today, we have infinitely more tools to document environmental destruction in real-time.
- Respect the "No Access" Rules: If a sensitive area is closed to the public, stay out. Social media "clout" isn't worth damaging a thousand-year-old ecosystem.
The story of Julia and Luna is a reminder that victories in conservation are never really "finished." They require constant vigilance, legal protection, and sometimes, a few steel cables to hold things together when the world tries to cut you down.