The Legacy of Luna: The Story of a Tree, a Woman and the Struggle to Save the Redwoods

I was so inspired to read a book by the woman who spent 2 years and 8 days atop an ancient redwood tree - at a height equivalent to an 18 story building! WHO could accomplish such an incredible feat, in favor of our living treasures, the Redwood National Forrest? Julia Butterfly Hill, is who. Just think of it my friends. She was very young at the time, 23 years old and had just barely recovered from a bad accident and then she drives across country, arrives at the sacred and foggy cathedral of the Redwoods Forrest, in Humbolt County, California. Within days she ascends to live amongst the branches of her newfound friend, Luna - who is the 1,000 year old redwood tree that she prays she can save.
Pacific Lumber wants to chop the tree to smithereens. For what reason? To make a redwood deck?
How stupid and pointless!
So UP Ms Hill goes to stop the lumberjacks, who act like jackasses to destroy the forrest.
It is an unsustainable practice, but you can't argue with their mentality.
They see the deforestation as a way of putting food on their table, but it is methodolically destroying what took thousands of years to form. Our precious redwood forrest is under siege by these lumber companies.

Ms Butterfly Hill climbs this tree in order to save it's life. Her story is told as completely as possible in this enthralling book. I hope that you read it and in true Ms Butterfly fashion, pass it along to another reader. Ms Butterfly would appreciate the recycling of the pages of her book, because she is truly vested to preserve our natural earth.
I loved this book and I love Ms Butterfly Hill!!!
She is a champion for living in the massive tree - on a wooden platform no bigger than the surface of a queen sized bed! What an amazing accomplishmet for a woman, especially a woman that young!!!
The weather was especially uncooperative during the winter season. She was hardy to survive the relentless cold, winds and attacks on her by Pacific Lumber and their evil allies.
Read her book and be amazed at what her heart & her mind (and her earth friendly friends) did for a beautiful redwood tree, and what heartless people did to force her off the tree.
She is also a spiritualy woman who credits the loving and almighty God for helping her during times of hugely stressful challenges. Like when Pacific Lumber sent a helicopter to blow 300 mph winds in her face. That damned pilot should be jailed for trying to kill Ms Hill!!! That helicopter nearly blew her off the tree to her death, but God saved her from that horrible fate!!! God and only God could possibly have the power to keep Ms Hill perched on her platform and she won that battle.
The meanies didn't win this time.
Thank God for that!

In the end, the tree named LUNA was spared and this amazing woman lives on to tell her tale to all who will listen. I hope people hear her story and their hearts grow big with wonder at her amazing feat!
God bless you.

A wonderful book about environmental activism that left my inspired to do more to save our great forests and outraged by what the major timber companies are doing to our old growth forests and the environment. I particulary felt disgust and sadness for the disregard by Pacific Timber Corp for trees that were centuries old and using diesel fuel, napalm and other harmful chemicals/substances on pristine areas. Profit at any cost is unfortunatley what it is about. It was refreshing to learn of Julia's stand against all odds. A great book that everyone should read.

I stumbled across this book in a library book store and being familiar with the essence of what Ms Hill was trying to accomplish along with my penchant for admiring those who question authority and are willing to stand-up for what they believe in, I sat down and started reading it. Intrigued, I brought it home and read it all the way through- it was a captivating, inspiring journey!

Ms Hill relates the story of her upbringing and how she was taught "to question authority" and as her father told her, "Never take what someone else says as absolute truth". In other words, question all authority, but with grace. Her life background story reads like a script for a future activist with care and dedication so the tree-sit came somewhat as a natural for her. This did not make the effort any easier, however.

Although many questioned Ms Hill's dogged and dangerous dedication to Luna, a 200ft. tall ancient redwood tree that she bravely stayed up in for 2 years, none can deny the immense courage and perseverance she conjured-up to withstand ferocious wind, rain, snow and constant harassment from the lumber company who like any dedicated, hungry termite, was frustrated in being denied it's meal and tried every trick in the book to force her down from her beautiful perch in the sky with a grand view of the Headwaters Forest region.

I am confidant that such luminaries and heroes of the environmental movement that now reside in the heavens high above the trees, such as: John Muir, Aldo Leopold ("A Sand County Almanac"), Rachel Carson ("Silent Spring") that old enviro rascal, "Cactus" Edward Abbey ("The Monkey Wrench Gang"), and certainly, Henry David Thoreau ("Walden" and "Civil Disobedience"), were smiling down on Ms Hill and friends, lending their spirit of support.

Ms Hill even got admiration and support from such curious and unexpected avenues as "Good Housekeeping Magazine"!?? Oh, I get it, Good 'Tree-housekeeping'.

One of the most prestigious nods for Ms Hill that I have seen came from the famous sociobiologist, Prof. E. O. Wilson in his beautiful book, "The Future of Life", where he gives a compelling call for an internationally binding environmental ethics doctrine for appropriate and sustainable resource use. The nod starts on page 188 (hb edition) with, "The protest groups are the early warning system for the natural economy. They are the living world's immunological response. They ask us to listen. Julia (Butterfly) Hill, the young lady who lived 180 feet up in a California redwood tree for two years...". "...Bless them all." (the environmental protestors). From such a distinguished scientist as Wilson, that is quite an affirmation of the tree-sit!

This tree-sit accomplished a plethora of good in that it opened-up direct talks with the Pacific Lumber Co., who, along with other such companies, are normally antagonistic and not interested in debate and prefer to stick to an adversarial posture. Very importantly, there was a huge amount of international attention drawn to the nefarious and questionable ways the U.S. Government handles logging permits without proper environmental review and resource damage assessments.

Great acts of courage often-time create dangerous circumstances both for the protestors and their counterparts. Time and time again, there were injuries and scary close-calls, and tragically, one of Ms Hill's friends, David "Gypsy" Chain, was killed by a falling cut tree at Grizzly Creek. He gave his life for a very worthy cause and in honor of his memory, Ms Hill and her support team reinvigorated their efforts.

This tree-sit could not have happened without a huge base of support from Ms Hill's ground crew who had to run the gauntlet of security guards and angry loggers that tried to starve Julia out of the tree by blocking access to her supplies. Also, there were a number celebrities, some of which, climbed up into Luna to visit with her and lend their support.

So all things considered Ms Hill, I believe that it was a beautiful, productive 2 years of you and your friend's lives that you gave to Luna and the forests yet to be saved. Thank you all!

In memory of David "Gypsy" Chain, you are with the giants now.

One of the best books I've read... I couldn't put it down. I wish more people had the courage of their convictions as Julia does. It is also a great book for preteen/teenagers to get inspired about how one person can really make a difference

Julia Butterfly Hill sat in a 1000 year old growth redwood tree named Luna for better than two years. She tired to save a forest reserve from being clear cut, but in the end only managed to save Luna.
The book is about life in a tree.
The book is about and by a woman who watches a forest fall around her in the late 1990s, not all that long ago, really. Ultimately it is about the effects of treating the environment without the respect it deserves and doing things in an unsustainable manner.
After reading about this woman, her life, her motivations and her reasoning, her apparent insanity seems very reasonable indeed.
Perhaps we should all find a tree to sit in.

I read this in one day, it's almost as if reading a letter from a friend. I had heard about the woman who sat in a Redwood Tree in California, and after seeing the documentary about it, I had to read the book. The writing isn't outstanding, but I got everything I'd hoped for: A detailed description of life in Luna, which is amazing to say the least, and a much better insight on the activism to preserve old growth forests. I couldn't put it down. Read it for another perspective on life, and to learn more about Julia Butterfly Hill: A truly amazing activist.

This novel is a fabulous autobiography of Julia Hill, and her experience living in a redwood tree for two whole years. At first I thought it would be dull- how could I read a story about a woman living in a tree? I was quickly hooked to this book though. What makes it really fascinating is that Julia wasn't your typical environmentalist. In fact, until she sat in the tree, she wasn't an environmentalist at all (she was a business major-gasp!). This book also points out that the traditional trees vs. jobs problem is a bit of a myth and the real culprits are the big executives who believe in killing all trees rather than practicing sustainable forestry. This novel is both inspiring and eye opening.

This is an amazing story. I think if you are of one extreme political view or the other in regards to the redwoods, or environmentalism, you will be softened somewhat after reading Julia's odyssey. It is largely written from a place of neutrality (the heart), and does not "preach", nor is it angry in tone. I am a Northern Californian myself, and after experiencing personally the enormous anger/hate that goes on between BOTH sides of the spectrum, i.e. the logging industry, and the environmentalists, her book was very refreshing. It was as if, by climbing the tree, and remaining in it for so long, Julia stood on the fulcrum of both extremes.

I remember one part of the book where, after a confrontation with one of the loggers, she lowered down a photograph of herself dressed in a formal gown. Seeing her as someone he could identify with, and not just as a tree-hugging-hippy-out-to-ruin-his-life-by-taking his livelihood away, shifted him.

It may be that I believe Julia is a saint, simply because I'm a tree fanatic. But I feel she has really helped shift a lot of the stagnatic energy on both sides of the tree agenda. She has a wonderful heart, and I believe most of you will be able to identify with her, just as that logger did.

The only reason I did not give this book 4 stars, is that there are parts of the writing which seem repeated or slow. But definately, read this book... it is a very unique story!

Julia is an inspiration to ANYONE who feels like he or she cannot make a difference being just one person.

The amazing story of a young woman who spent two years of her life living in a tree, in order to help save the old growth forests near my home town in Humboldt County, CA.
Before I read this book, I had thought of her ordeal as more of a publicity stunt than anything else. After reading of the hardships she endured, and the tone of her personal convictions though, it became quite clear that this was no "stunt".
Whether you agree with her stance on the environment or not, you have to respect her conviction for her personal beliefs. This story sheds some light on how our youth are using passive activism to help save our planet.
The book is remnicient of Thoreau's Walden in many ways. While it certainly is not be on the literary level of Walden, it definitely is a refreshing change from the many books of today's "me" generation.

The Legacy of Luna is an inspiring tale of one woman who acts on a calling to do something extraordinary. It is written in a humble, honest way (includes drawings by Julia) that endears the reader to the brave Julia and her beloved tree. This book is not a comprehensive guide meant to educate us thoroughly about the struggles facing the environmental movement in the United States however this book does offer a fabulous introduction to some of the issues. Julia familiarizes us with the "new dynamics" of the logging industry in the U.S. This familiarity leads us to comprehend the ramifications of "big business" controlling logging in Northern California. This Book is a quick read and truly inspiring. You cannot help falling in love with Julia and admire her determination as she strives to save Luna. Thank You Julia, you have truly become one of my heros!!