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She Lived In A Tree For 738 Days - The Amazing Story of Julia Butterfly Hill · Be Amazed

• 0:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: We all face obstacles that we've got to overcome in life, but they're likely nothing compared to the woman who had to live in a 180-foot-tall redwood tree for over two years.
• 0:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: Facing everything from attacking helicopters to ferocious thunderstorms.
• 0:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: Intrigued?
• 0:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: Well, get your harnesses at the ready, as we uncover the unbelievable story of Julia Butterfly Hill,
• 0:41
  [SPEAKER_00]: To start our story, we've got to go back to the 70s, 1974, to be precise.
• 0:47
  [SPEAKER_00]: This was the year Julia Lorraine Hill was born in Mount Vernon, Missouri.
• 0:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: Julia's father was a traveling preacher briefly staying at each church he visited, hopping from town to town the family never had time to settle.
• 1:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: In fact, until she was about 10 years old, Julia lived in a 32-foot camper van with her father, mother, and two younger brothers.
• 1:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: Unsurprisingly, the tiny camper was crowded.
• 1:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: Little did Julia know living, eating, and sleeping and confined quarters would be perfect training for what was to come.
• 1:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: Living out of a camper van also meant Julia didn't have many toys or clothes like other kids her age.
• 1:25
  [SPEAKER_00]: Instead, she explored rivers and looked out for any wildlife to follow.
• 1:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: In fact, Julia's life was so different to the rest.
• 1:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: She didn't even start school when she turned five.
• 1:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: Her parents decided with their on-the-move lifestyle, it'd be best for Juvenile Julie to be home school, or campervan schooled more like.
• 1:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: In fairness, she learned to read, write, and solve math problems in her family camper, however her favorite lessons took place in the great outdoors.
• 1:53
  [SPEAKER_00]: The whole family enjoyed hiking and forests together, on one hike when Julia was just six years old something incredible happened.
• 2:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: As she was trekking through the shrubbery, a monarch butterfly landed on her finger, even more amazingly, it wouldn't budge, resting there for the entire hike.
• 2:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: So gobsmacked were her brothers, they gave their older sister the nickname Butterfly.
• 2:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: From that day on, she became known as Julia Butterfly Hill.
• 2:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: By the time she was 10, Julia's family settled down in Arkansas, so that meant finally she could start going to school.
• 2:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: Julia was finally learning about the periodic table in Pythagoras' theorem, although the strict school schedule also meant she spent less time exploring all things nature.
• 2:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: Nevertheless, Julia went on to graduate from high school before heading off to college.
• 2:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: During her time there, the teenager made ends meet by modeling for a clothing company and working as a restaurant waitress.
• 2:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: Following one of her waitress shifts, something happened that would change Julia's life forever.
• 2:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: While driving home she was waiting at a red light, then all of a sudden both Julia and her car were rocked forward.
• 3:03
  [SPEAKER_00]: Shockingly, a drunk driver going full speed in a Ford Bronco had rammed into the back of her.
• 3:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: The near fatal crash saw Julia bedbound in hospital for weeks.
• 3:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: It took almost a year of intensive therapy for her to finally regain the ability to speak and walk.
• 3:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: During her lengthy rehabilitation, Julia had plenty of time to reflect on her life.
• 3:25
  [SPEAKER_00]: After months of thinking and reflection, she came to the conclusion that her life was out of balance.
• 3:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: and Julia's eyes her nature loving past was a fading memory.
• 3:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: Instead, her life now revolved around career in material possessions.
• 3:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: While that would sound A.O.K.
• 3:41
  [SPEAKER_00]: for most of us, Julia was more interested in devoting her time to making a positive impact on the future.
• 3:47
  [SPEAKER_01]: It didn't take long for this nature lover to stick to her word.
• 3:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: Shortly after recuperating from her accident, she and some friends paid a visit to a forest of Redwood trees in Humboldt County, California.
• 3:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: If you didn't know Redwood trees with their reddish brown hue are among the tallest trees in the world, often exceeding 300 feet.
• 4:07
  [SPEAKER_00]: That's around the height of the Statue of Liberty.
• 4:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: So rangey are Redwoods, they can create entire ecosystems.
• 4:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yep, hundreds of flora like ferns, moss, and lichen have been found living in the canopies of redwoods.
• 4:22
  [SPEAKER_00]: This in turn provides food for swarms of insects and amphibians that also call these trees home.
• 4:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: As well as that, many more species of birds and various mammals like bats and squirrels nest and find food among the foliage.
• 4:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: But that's not the only way in which redwoods are hugely helpful for the environment.
• 4:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: Thanks to their large size, long lifespan, and rot-resistant wood, red wood trees can capture at least three times more carbon dioxide from the air than standard trees, before transforming it into the oxygen we breathe.
• 4:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yep, so these guys essentially hover up greenhouse gases.
• 4:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: How TREEMENDESS?
• 5:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: Down below the surface, these genius giants help out too.
• 5:04
  [SPEAKER_00]: Typically, a red wood's roots will extend no more than 12 feet underground.
• 5:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: Instead, they travel outward, sometimes extending up to 100 feet out from the trunk.
• 5:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: This massive root system allows them to intertwine their roots with each other, providing support and stability for these formidable flora.
• 5:23
  [SPEAKER_00]: Crucially, Redwood's expansive root system also helps to bind soil together, anchoring it in place.
• 5:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: On top of that, their roots absorb large amounts of water from the soil, preventing saturation.
• 5:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: This along with their large trunks and dense canopy, which help break the force of wind and rain, massively reduce the rates of soil erosion, and considering soil erosion reduces the land's ability to absorb water,
• 5:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: leading to increased surface runoff as well as a higher risk of flooding in landslides.
• 5:53
  [SPEAKER_00]: That's pretty important.
• 5:55
  [SPEAKER_00]: Thank God for Red Woods.
• 5:57
  [SPEAKER_00]: So to sum up, Red Woods are among the tallest trees in the world, created entire ecosystems, reverse climate change, and prevent soil erosion.
• 6:07
  [SPEAKER_00]: Pretty perfect, right?
• 6:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: And it's fair to say Julia was in agreement.
• 6:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: After visiting the Redwood Forest in Humboldt County, she was so in awe that she dropped to her knees and began to cry, overwhelmed by the wisdom, energy and spirituality the forest gave her.
• 6:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: Considering how terrific these trees sound, who can blame her, sadly though not everyone shared Julia's sentiment.
• 6:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: On New Year's Eve, 1996, heavy storms battered much of humble counting.
• 6:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: The storms brought plenty of rain with them.
• 6:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: Now usually that wouldn't be much of a problem.
• 6:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: However, the relentless rainfall sent the 20-foot wall of mud and rocks sliding down the forest slopes and onto the small community of Stafford.
• 6:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: Luckily no one was seriously hurt, though more than 30 homes were damaged or destroyed.
• 6:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: for the residents the culprit was cleared.
• 7:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: They were certain that Pacific lumber lumbering companies logging of redwood trees in the area, had weakened the soil, making it vulnerable to heavy rainfall.
• 7:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: Wait, let's rewind real quick.
• 7:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: Pacific who?
• 7:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: All right, time for a quick logging lesson.
• 7:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: First founded in 1863, the family owned business, otherwise known as Palco, were widely praised for their sustainable forestry practices.
• 7:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: Then in 1985, Charles Hurwitz, a Texan billionaire and head of Maxim Corporation, acquired the company.
• 7:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yet environmentalists argued that in order to finance the $800 million of debt incurred in the takeover, Halco aggressively stepped up its rate of redwood logging.
• 7:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: Now, as we already know, one of the many negative effects of logging is the greater risk of soil erosion, which can potentially trigger tragic events like the Stafford landslide.
• 7:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: Despite that, Pacific lumber company refused to take responsibility for the act.
• 8:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: Let's just say, Stafford's residents thought Palco were barking up the wrong tree.
• 8:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: After offering the residents a measly $1,000 each, the company began logging the remaining area of forest around Stafford, including the Stafford Giant, a 1,000-year-old 180-foot tall redwood.
• 8:23
  [SPEAKER_00]: Although the logging company was engaging in environmentally dangerous practices, legal efforts to stop them had failed.
• 8:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: So environmentalists willing to commit civil disobedience, organize protests in the Redwood Forest in an effort to prevent their destruction.
• 8:47
  [SPEAKER_00]: After learning about the threat to her beloved trees, Julia joined Earth first, a radical environmentalist group that opposed the Pacific Lumber Company's logging in Humboldt County.
• 8:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: By late 1997, in an attempt to dissuade the ever-increasing logging in the area, the disruption tactics of Earth first became more and more outlandish.
• 9:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: The most ambitious of these involved the Stafford Giant, the humongous tree found within the forest area, owned by Palco.
• 9:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: Members of Earth First constructed two platforms up the tree, with the hope that someone could provide a human presence up the Redwood, preventing its destruction.
• 9:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: In December 1997, Earth First, we're looking for a volunteer to sit in the Stafford Giant.
• 9:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: It was anticipated to only take a few weeks of tree sitting before Palco would give up and move on to some other forest to log.
• 9:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: Saying that sitting up a redwood tree for two weeks in the freezing December conditions doesn't sound like the best way to celebrate the Christmas season.
• 9:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: Unsurprisingly, nobody was too keen.
• 9:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: Then Julia remembering her devotion to make a positive impact on the future.
• 9:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: put herself forward.
• 10:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: It was going to be a hard two weeks, but in the end, it'd all be worth it, if it would save the Redwood.
• 10:07
  [SPEAKER_00]: What she didn't know, however, is that this tree-sit would be far longer and more terrifying than she could ever imagine.
• 10:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: So on 10th December 1997, the 23-year-old began her colossal climb.
• 10:22
  [SPEAKER_00]: Since the moon was rising at the time, she was climbing activists chose to name the tree Luna, which is Latin for Moon.
• 10:29
  [SPEAKER_00]: And just like the moon, Luna was high up, really high up.
• 10:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: In all, Luna stretched some 180 feet above the ground, making this towering tree around the height of the leaning tower of Pisa.
• 10:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: Man, think how tiring that a scent must have been.
• 10:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: Finally, after hours of harnessing her way up the Redwood, Julia reached the platform.
• 10:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: So exhausting was the climb she immediately collapsed, but that was the easy part.
• 10:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: Now came the not so small task of actually living up a tree.
• 11:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: Julia had two platforms in the tree.
• 11:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: The lower of the two found around 100 feet up was a 6x8 foot slab of wood that served as her living space.
• 11:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: For context, that's around half the size of an average bedroom.
• 11:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: You won't be surprised to know this wasn't the fanciest living space going either.
• 11:23
  [SPEAKER_00]: A sheet of blue tarp was tied to the trunk to act as a roof.
• 11:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: And as for the bed, well, all Julia had was a sleeping bag.
• 11:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: Another platform at a loftier height of 180 feet was used as a storage space.
• 11:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: Whether it was climbing gear, extra clothes, cleaning supplies, or food, this place had everything Julia needed to see her through her time up Luna.
• 11:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: Now speaking of food, you're probably wondering how exactly she managed to get some sustenance 100 plus feet above the ground.
• 11:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: And before your mind runs off with thoughts of her chowing down any birdie neighbors that she might come across in the canopy, Julia being an eco warrior was a vegan.
• 12:04
  [SPEAKER_00]: Instead, once a week, an eight-member support crew at the bottom of the tree poiseded food and supplies up using a pulley system.
• 12:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: Typically, Hills diet would consist of raw fruit and vegetables.
• 12:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: Although she also possessed a camping stove and cooking utensils, allowing her to whip up dishes like her famously delicious potato squash stew.
• 12:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: Imagine how cool it'd be to have those views while tucking into your dinner.
• 12:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: As you know, though, all that food had to go somewhere eventually.
• 12:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: Catch my drift.
• 12:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: Fortunately for anyone stationed at the bottom of the Stafford Giant, they didn't have to watch their head for any dirty droppings.
• 12:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: Instead, she'd do her business in a garbage bag lined bucket before sealing it up and lowering it to the ground when her support team were present.
• 12:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: If that wasn't gross enough, he'll barely washed.
• 12:55
  [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, what chance do you have of finding a shower up a tree?
• 13:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: Instead, poor Julia had to make do with a small basin filled with water that she'd use for an occasional sponge bath.
• 13:07
  [SPEAKER_00]: And I mean, very occasional.
• 13:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: In the first few months up Luna, she bathed just three times.
• 13:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yikes!
• 13:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: Interestingly, when Julia did bathe, she wouldn't wash the souls of her feet.
• 13:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: It may sound disgusting at first, but Julia's unwash souls stuck to the tree sap better, allowing her to move about the tree's canopy without the fear of falling down.
• 13:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: Tarzan, eat your heart out!
• 13:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: As weeks became months, Julia still remained in the tree, so what was the hold-up?
• 13:38
  [SPEAKER_00]: After all, this tree said was only meant to take a couple of weeks.
• 13:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: Well, sadly, for Julia, Palco were refusing to budge.
• 13:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: Annoyingly, for the lumber company, though, as the months progressed, Julia's mind-boggling feet was becoming more and more newsworthy.
• 13:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: By the time Spring had sprung in 1998, she'd virtually become a celebrity.
• 14:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: In fact, most of her days up, Luna were typically spent reading through the hundreds of fan mail letters she'd receive as well as conducting radio interviews through her solar powered cell phone.
• 14:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: reporters and photographers even brave the two-hour climb just to get up close and personal with the star.
• 14:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: At this point, Julia was the queen of the forest.
• 14:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: In fact, it wasn't just ordinary folk who were looking to pay Miss Hill a visit.
• 14:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: Singer activists, Joan Bias, and Bonnie Rate also dropped by, or climb more like, with Bias calling it one of the most remarkable experiences of her life.
• 14:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yep, Julia Hills extroordinary activism work was reaching hetty heights.
• 14:41
  [SPEAKER_00]: And I don't just mean because she was 180 feet off the ground.
• 14:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: But, just as Julia's profile was raising so were the threats against her.
• 14:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: For some context, the 1990s were a time where tensions between loggers and activists were at their fiercest.
• 14:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: In 1997, Humboldt County Police Officers dabbed the eyes of activists surrounding trees with cotton swabs soaked in pepper spray.
• 15:07
  [SPEAKER_00]: Man, those guys really weren't messing around.
• 15:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: One year later, David Chain, among several other activists, was protesting through the forest of Humboldt County when disaster struck, or should I say, fell.
• 15:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: One timber worker named Arlington Amons was getting increasingly more furious at the presence of protesters in the forest.
• 15:29
  [SPEAKER_00]: Activists even recorded Amons swearing and threatening them.
• 15:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: Sadly, those threats would soon be realized.
• 15:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: Apparently after spotting a group of activists sitting down for some lunch, Ammon started to hack down a 135 foot red wood.
• 15:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: As the tree fell, it collapsed on the chain.
• 15:49
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, as you can imagine, that didn't end well for him.
• 15:53
  [SPEAKER_00]: Incredibly, despite the mountain of evidence against Ammon, the Humboldt County District decided not to charge him for chains passing, putting the tragedy down to bad luck.
• 16:04
  [SPEAKER_00]: Okay, so now you know, the Redwood Forest of Northern California weren't a safe place to be in the late 1990s, especially if you found yourself camped up a Redwood tree, and it's fair to say it didn't take long before Hills Life was in danger too.
• 16:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: One morning as she was still waking up, the activist noticed something strange.
• 16:25
  [SPEAKER_00]: There was a vicious worrying sound getting closer and closer.
• 16:29
  [SPEAKER_00]: While strange sounds in towns and cities are commonplace, they're not something you'd expect to hear while you're all alone at a height over 100 feet above the forest floor.
• 16:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: As the sound got closer and closer, Julia started to get blown away.
• 16:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: Then all of a sudden, with Julia desperately clinging onto Luna, there it was, whizzing above her.
• 16:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: It was a helicopter sent from Palco and tended to intimidate Hill into desgaling the shrub.
• 16:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: Though the threatening chopper eventually flew away, Julius troubles were far from over.
• 17:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: Figuring the next best way to break Hill's spirit was to cut off her supplies and food from coming in, Palco effectively besieged Luna.
• 17:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: For no less than 10 days, the area surrounding Luna was roped off while three security guards stood at the base of the tree, stopping anyone from getting supplies to Julia.
• 17:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: As the days ticked by, she was running extremely low on food and her phone was fast running out of battery.
• 17:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: With her last bit of juice, Julia phones some fellow activists to hatch a cunning plan to stop the siege.
• 17:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: A swarm of activists hiked up to a hill near to Luna, where they jumped around and shouted in an attempt to catch the attention of the security guards.
• 17:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: With the guards distracted by the strange sight and sound, a few other of Julia's companions quickly clipped a bag of supplies onto the rope, which she hauled up, all before any of the guards could notice.
• 17:57
  [SPEAKER_00]: genius.
• 17:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: But the victory would soon get even sweeter for Julia.
• 18:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: Embarrassed that they'd been fooled, the security guards decided they may as well pack up, leaving the forest the very next day.
• 18:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: It seemed nobody could match Julia's determination and resilience.
• 18:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yet Palcos intimidation tactics weren't the only terrifying threat facing Julia.
• 18:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: Unsurprisingly, living way up in a tree with nothing to keep you cozy, but some tarp and a sleeping bag isn't luxurious, especially in winter.
• 18:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: During the colder months, temperatures drop to a chilly 40 degrees.
• 18:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: Exposure to such cold conditions over an extended period of time can lead to hypothermia, where the body loses heat faster than it can produce it.
• 18:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: And considering hypothermia can be fatal, it's not something you want to experience perched 180 feet up in the air.
• 18:53
  [SPEAKER_00]: Fortunately, by wrapping herself tight in a sleeping bag, leaving only a small hole for breathing, Julia just about survived the frosty conditions.
• 19:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: There would be worse though, you see, she also had to face fierce thunderstorms.
• 19:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: One particular storm named El Niño, ripped through the forest with blistering 90 miles per hour winds,
• 19:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: that lasted some 16 hours.
• 19:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: Julia herself said, imagine you're on a Bucking Bronco.
• 19:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: Put that Bronco on a ship at sea in the middle of a storm, then put that 180 feet in the air.
• 19:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: Sounds terrifying, doesn't it?
• 19:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: Fearing for her life, Julia grabbed Luna's trunk and started praying.
• 19:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: She passed out yet miraculously, she later woke up still clinging to the red wood.
• 19:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: She'd survived the storm.
• 19:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: Clearly nothing could break Julia and Luna's bond.
• 19:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: Initially, Palco refused to negotiate with Hill as their CEO John Campbell explained, she was breaking the law, she was trespassing, and you don't negotiate with people who are breaking the law.
• 19:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: However, as the months turned to years and everything from hateful helicopters to surging storms failed to discourage Hill, Palco finally admitted defeat.
• 20:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: In late 1999, a resolution was reached.
• 20:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: Palco agreed to preserve the Stafford Giant as well as all other trees within a 200-foot radius.
• 20:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: in exchange, Hill would vacate her Heidi Home.
• 20:22
  [SPEAKER_00]: However, as part of the agreement, Hill and her supporters would also pay $50,000 to Palco, making up for lost logging revenue in the area.
• 20:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: Fortunately, the company decided it would be best to donate the sizeable sum to Humboldt State University for Forestry Studies.
• 20:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: With the agreement in place, Julia could finally leave Luna, safe in the knowledge the tree wouldn't be felled and turned into tissue paper.
• 20:47
  [SPEAKER_00]: On December 18, 1999, 738 days after Julia climbed up the redwood, she finally came down again.
• 20:55
  [SPEAKER_00]: Thank goodness.
• 20:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, had she lived in that tree any longer who knows?
• 21:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: Maybe she would have become half-women half-truck.
• 21:03
  [SPEAKER_00]: Can you imagine being camped up in the canopy of a redwood for over 24 months?
• 21:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: I don't think I'd last 24 minutes before crying for my mama.
• 21:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: Unsurprisingly, when Julia finally touched down from her tree, she collapsed in the mud before exclaiming, we did it.
• 21:22
  [SPEAKER_00]: No, Julia, you did it.
• 21:25
  [SPEAKER_00]: Despite getting one over Palco, Julia's work was far from done.
• 21:29
  [SPEAKER_00]: She continued to advocate against the practice of logging on her various talk show appearances.
• 21:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: On top of that, the terrific tree sitter became an author, motivational speaker, and co-founder of the Circle of Life Foundation, a platform that produces speaking tours eco-friendly events classroom visits and workshops.
• 21:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yet, for all her good work, not everyone was an advocate of Julia's eco-conscious cause.
• 21:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: Tragically, in November 2000, less than a year after she'd completed the tree sit, Luna was cut into.
• 22:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: Vandals armed with a chain saw slashed a 32-inch deep gash around the base, just less than half the circumference of the tree's trunk.
• 22:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: Thankfully, after the gash was treated with an herbal remedy, and the tree was stabilized with steel cables, Olluna made a full recovery.
• 22:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: Still, it went to show that despite all of Hills Heroics, her fight was far from finished.
• 22:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: In 2002, Julia, along with several other climate activists, pitched outside the offices of Occidental Petroleum in Keto, Ecuador.
• 22:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: This time she wasn't protesting against logging but a planned oil pipeline that had ripped right through an Ecuadorian forest brimming with rare birds.
• 22:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: Sadly on this occasion the protest fell on deaf ears, as Julia was detained by Ecuadorian authorities before being deported back to the US.
• 22:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: Not satisfied in her efforts, Julia was out on the protest trail once again in 2006,
• 23:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: At 14 acres, the South Central Farm was one of the largest urban farms in the U.S. providing a community space for gardening and source of food for around 350 families.
• 23:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yet, despite its importance to the local community, the farm was sold in 2004 with farmers evicted in 2006, as a last-ditch effort to save the farm hill among other protesters participated in a three-week long tree set.
• 23:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: Considering her experience, that must have been a walk in the park.
• 23:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: Even still, despite the environmentalist efforts, the sale of the South Central Farm still went through.
• 23:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: Since then, Julia has largely remained out of the public spotlight, but even today her legacy remains as strong as ever.
• 23:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: She's been the subject of several documentaries, interviews and books, including her own 2000 memoir, The Legacy of Luna.
• 24:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: On top of that, she's mentioned in songs by the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Neil Young to name a few, and has even inspired the Simpsons episode, Lisa the Tree Hugger.
• 24:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: But most importantly, Julia's dedicated devotion to the cause has inspired a whole generation of environmental activists who look up to her work in more ways than one.
• 24:22
  [SPEAKER_00]: Okay, before we wrap up, have a think of what you can take from this story.
• 24:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: Well, the lesson Julia can teach us is a simple one.
• 24:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: No matter who you are in life, if you're determined and resilient enough, you can achieve anything you put your mind to, however high the climb may seem.
• 24:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: And with all that in mind, who knows?
• 24:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: Maybe in the future, one of your extraordinary feats will see the Simpson's
• 24:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: even better, maybe I could be making an episode about you one day, and that rounds up another episode.
• 24:55
  [SPEAKER_00]: Which part of Julia's jaw dropping 738 day treat it inspired you the most?
• 25:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: Let me know in the comments if the platform allows it, and thanks for listening.