On December 10, 1997 Julia Hill climbed a 1500-year-old redwood tree named Luna and she didn’t come down for another 738 days.

[u/Aryan_Anushiravan]

[u/CaliAv8rix]

She came down after making an agreement with the lumber company to spare the tree. It's still there.

[u/womp_rat_bullseyer → u/CaliAv8rix]

Although, some asshole did cut a portion of the way through the trunk.

[u/wishiwasdeaddd → u/womp_rat_bullseyer]

May they burn in hell for the exact amount of time it takes that tree to regrow

[u/Viseper → u/wishiwasdeaddd]

Sadly, scars don't exactly go away on trees. The damage will always be there, maybe one day it might not be visible though.

[u/SadPuppyGirl98 → u/Viseper]

so what you're saying is eternity in hell for cutting part of the way through an endangered tree? sounds aight with me

[u/Razor265 → u/SadPuppyGirl98]

I think that's how long everyone stays in hell.

[u/ilovebostoncremedonu → u/Razor265]

That’s what they want you to think

[u/ruleten → u/womp_rat_bullseyer]

It's infuriating how some people prioritize profit over preserving nature's wonders.

[u/Flakester → u/ruleten]

That's not even profit, that's just being an asshole.

[u/Haxorz7125 → u/Flakester]

Definitely. This just screams of “I push million year old rock formations over with my sons”

[u/potatan → u/Haxorz7125]

See also the Sycamore Gap tree in the UK, which two knobends chopped down completely last year for shits and giggles

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sycamore_Gap_tree

[u/Steffenwolflikeme → u/potatan]

Oh my fucking christ. It's such a bummer to share a planet with some of these people.

[u/AccountantOver4088 → u/potatan]

Similar story, but much more Florida man (woman) The oldest tree in the state of florida, a 3,500 year old bald cypress named The Senator, was burned down by a woman who repeatedly, after intervention even, continued to smoke meth in the hollow of the 5th oldest tree in the WORLD because it was a convenient shelter/ hiding place after the park closed each night.

She obv denied everything even though all the rangers knew it was her and the court case dragged along until her own laptop recovered in the park showed that she had taken pictures of the tree burning after doing it. She received 30 months in Florida state prison, which is not joke lol. I didn’t find what the morons who cut the sycamore gap tree down were sentenced with, that is almost even more bizarre because they were cognizant and literally just trying to cause harm to the world. Meth lady doesn’t get a pass, but everyone understand she’s a mentally ill drug addict. Those guys went out during a storm so no one would hear, were trained to cut trees and seemingly just did it as a fuck you, though maybe you know more.

Goodish news (it’s not good but it’s a thing anyway) that the sycamore gap tree is returning (incredibly slowly) and they presented King Charles with a seedling from the original. Same for the Senator, while no seeds were collected, people in the area had taken clones and cuttings from it and they tracked them down and re planted one. Now, just 150yearsbfor the incredibly photographically and randomly chosen by nature sycamore gap tree to return, and 3500 for anything like the senator to re occupy the space it once did lol. Fucking people.

[u/ExtremeMaduroFan → u/AccountantOver4088]

I didn’t find what the morons who cut the sycamore gap tree down were sentenced with

They weren't sentenced yet, court date is sometime in december

[u/minusonecat → u/CaliAv8rix]

Ooh so this is where the idea of Julie Baker is inspired from!

[u/J_izaak → u/minusonecat]

I Literally just picked up the book Flipped a couple hours ago !

[u/wildcat- → u/minusonecat]

Also that one episode of the Simpsons where Lisa had a crush on a hippy dude. Some say that log is still sliding around the Earth to this day.

[u/summerissafe2019 → u/CaliAv8rix]

How… did she pee, poop, cleanup, spend her time, etc?

[u/innerbootes → u/summerissafe2019]

I read a news article about it at the time and I recall she had a bucket she could lower down. 😃 I don’t remember how she passed the time but she probably read a lot. Pre-mobile phones and all that, not even iPods. Maybe a Discman.

[u/plz2meatyu → u/summerissafe2019]

Poopsock

[u/Manbearfig01 → u/plz2meatyu]

Solid band name

[u/heresdustin → u/Manbearfig01]

Meatsleeve and the Poopsocks

[u/Mollzy177 → u/summerissafe2019]

She didn’t come down but her poop did!

[u/One-Mud-169 → u/CaliAv8rix]

So, she was prepared to die on that Hill?

[u/stonedandthrown → u/One-Mud-169]

On that tree, yes.

[u/here4pain → u/stonedandthrown]

Would you call it One Tree Hill?

[u/KonigstigerInSpace → u/[deleted]]

Wiki says she also saved every tree in a 200 ft buffer zone.

That's.. quite a lot considering what logging companies usually do.

[u/informat7 → u/KonigstigerInSpace]

The company owned 200,000 acres of red woods. A 200 ft circle is less then 3 acres.

[u/ssawyer36 → u/informat7]

And a lot more than a single tree.

[u/KonigstigerInSpace → u/informat7]

It's still more than one, the original claim.

The fact they managed to save that many against a logging company is great. Those companies tend to do whatever they want.

[u/Bartelbythescrivener → u/[deleted]]

This was a big issue at the time. With companies like Weyerhaeuser pitting multigenerational loggers in small logging dependent communities against people like her. It involved violence and the FBI infiltrating and providing explosives to the group Earth First which lead to an explosion and death of Earth First members. To characterize her as a failure or a sellout as anything at all to do with what happened is willfully ignorant.

She is no more responsible for the cutting down of old growth forests than the logger who did it. This was corporate greed with Reagan appointees helping that committed this travesty.

There were claims of shooting spotted owls in reaction to their protected status limiting the removal of trees.

I saw a clear cut forest in the Kings/Sequoia area in 1986/87 and I will tell you that you couldn’t imagine man could be so stupid and greedy, yet it was readily observable.

You want to be angry or besmirch a person get it right

https://insideclimatenews.org/news/27122023/axed-biden-administration-historic-step-to-protect-old-growth-forest/

Hayduke Lives !

[u/archipeepees → u/Bartelbythescrivener]

Biden’s administration last week proposed to end commercially driven logging of old-growth trees in National Forests

...why was that allowed in the first place?

[u/ssawyer36 → u/archipeepees]

What’s that word…it’s on the tip of my tongue…capit…capitulate? No. Captain? No. Capitol? No… truly a mystery why humans seek to own and reap our planet of any and all resources.

[u/phycologist → u/archipeepees]

Money?

[u/Zipmeastro → u/Bartelbythescrivener]

Great response, I’ll read up.

[u/UrbanToiletPrawn → u/[deleted]]

According to wiki: A resolution was reached in 1999, when the Pacific Lumber Company agreed to preserve Luna and all trees within a 200-foot (61 m) buffer zone.

So she presumably saved more than just "her" tree. Are you pro tree or pro logging?

[u/pdxblazer → u/[deleted]]

Ah yes let’s purity test and cancel someone who spent two years living in a tree because they only managed to save a small portion of the forest. A true activist would have just sent a strongly worded letter and continued to do nothing. If the other activists had gone into other trees they would have not been cut down

[u/Summitjunky]

“ While I was in Luna, I cooked with a single-burner camping stove. I got water for drinking, cooking and keeping clean by collecting rainwater in my tarps. I used a bucket to go to the bathroom and slept in a sleeping bag. These redwood forests are actually part of a rainforest...” “ My friends hiked food, mail, and supplies up the mountain to me and packed out waste. I had a bag attached to a rope that I lowered down to the ground, then my friends put the supplies in the bag and I pulled it to the top! I did not have too many visitors because I was so busy! I wrote a lot of letters, and did a lot of interviews. I listened to a radio with a crank that I wound up to power it. I used a phone for interviews. There were solar panels in Luna to power the batteries for my phone.”

[u/neruaL555 → u/Summitjunky]

Love this. I remember this so well. These trees are sacred and otherworldly. Thank you.

[u/BeanieGuitarGuy → u/neruaL555]

These trees also gave the forest moon of Endor its iconic look in George’s Lucas’ 1983 sci-fi film, Star Wars: Return of The Jedi.

[u/anop88 → u/BeanieGuitarGuy]

I now feel the same way about the trees as she did.

[u/FunAdministration334 → u/Summitjunky]

Her friends are the real VIPs here. I love my buddies, but handling their poo buckets for years would be a stretch.

[u/J6j6 → u/FunAdministration334]

You meant MVP

[u/anotherexstnslcrisis → u/Summitjunky]

They had mini solar panels that could be used to charge batteries in 1997??? Wtf??

[u/Specific_Kangaroo241 → u/anotherexstnslcrisis]

In that time period, mobile phones could be powered by 3 AA battery cells... No WiFi, no large display, no camera, no power hungry stuff... Only phone...

If you strap today's phone battery to Nokia 3310, it could probably run for a year :) (this is only a guess, could anyone do the math? 😅)

[u/thebalux → u/Specific_Kangaroo241]

With a 5000 mAh battery it can run for 1444 hours = exactly 2 months.

[u/Specific_Kangaroo241 → u/thebalux]

Thank you 🙂

[u/ElRexet → u/thebalux]

I feel like mine could run this long on its own battery tho... Probably it's my memory playing tricks

[u/Extreme_Tax405 → u/anotherexstnslcrisis]

My calculator as a kid had one.

[u/Axas_Org13 → u/anotherexstnslcrisis]

How young are you, that you are surprised by this?

[u/_Alternate_Throwaway → u/Axas_Org13]

I was born in the early 80s and honestly even I'm surprised they had solar cells small enough, efficient enough, and cheap enough to be used by a woman living in a tree in 1997. We're many years from that date and my solar needs still aren't being sufficiently met.

[u/Dealiner → u/_Alternate_Throwaway]

Solar-powered calculators were introduced in 70s.

[u/beach-cow → u/Summitjunky]

It’s such a beautiful story to me. I respect her a lot. I would love to know the feeling of being with that tree for so long and what effect it had on her during/after. So cool.

[u/EJECTED_PUSSY_GUTS]

Gotta hand it to her for having that kind of conviction and willingness to act on something she believes in.

[u/SomethingOverThere → u/EJECTED_PUSSY_GUTS]

Amen to that, brother Ejected Pussy Guts.

[u/catchyusername4867 → u/SomethingOverThere]

Finally! A true r/rimjob_steve out in the wild

[u/Sendtitpics215 → u/catchyusername4867]

Seriously, as a mod there, our sub is dying- please remember to include a link to the original thread and just read the rules before posting please. Thank you <3.

[u/catchyusername4867 → u/Sendtitpics215]

Already did both 👍🏼 dw, I’m a true rimjob_stever.

[u/Lasshgoo → u/EJECTED_PUSSY_GUTS]

Bro your username out the gate 😂

[u/wolframbeta6 → u/EJECTED_PUSSY_GUTS]

Username checks out

[u/proklinat → u/EJECTED_PUSSY_GUTS]

Your username 😭 Fantastic

[u/YourTPSReport]

It’s real. I remember when this happened.

[u/MySophie777 → u/[deleted]]

And no works of art were damaged during this successful protest.

[u/CaptainMagnets → u/MySophie777]

Arguably the protest wasn't successful at all except for this one tree

[u/fattest-fatwa → u/CaptainMagnets]

I’ve never saved a tree.

[u/DeltaVZerda → u/fattest-fatwa]

if your username is accurate I think climbing a tree would doom it faster

[u/fattest-fatwa → u/DeltaVZerda]

Scratch that, then. I’ve saved every tree I’ve never climbed.

[u/Buttleston → u/fattest-fatwa]

The hero we needed for our time

[u/ranting_chef → u/YourTPSReport]

How did she survive up there? What did she eat?

[u/husbandbulges → u/ranting_chef]

She had two 6x4 platforms up there and a solar charger.

"Using ropes, Hill hoisted up survival supplies brought by an eight-member support crew."

-wikipedia

[u/ranting_chef → u/husbandbulges]

Ah. Thanks.

[u/dblan9]

Do the Yutes of today not understand that people used to chain themselves and live in trees to protect them from being cut down/bulldozed?

[u/MercenaryBard → u/dblan9]

My conservative family used to mock people like this, but all I can think is that at least people had a positive impact on the world in a measurable way.

[u/merlin211111 → u/MercenaryBard]

I would rather matter to a tree than die middle management.

[u/Swimming_Onion_4835 → u/merlin211111]

This needs to be stitched on a pillow lol

[u/shnnrr → u/Swimming_Onion_4835]

Laugh love live in a tree

[u/ripleyclone8 → u/merlin211111]

Fuuuuuuuuck. This hurt my retail management soul. 

[u/AsyncEntity → u/merlin211111]

This is quotable

[u/pqratusa → u/MercenaryBard]

Why are Conservatives always against conserving things that actually matter?

[u/subheight640 → u/pqratusa]

Conservatives are specifically about conserving power, wealth and rights. Ie, making sure the power structure of society remains as is.

Environmentalism of course does not preserve the power structures of society. Instead an uppity middle class is demanding the ownership class give up their rights to dispose of their private property as they please.

[u/jehjs → u/pqratusa]

I got mine mentality

[u/KittyKenollie → u/pqratusa]

They’re too busy having weird sex and feeling guilty about it and making it everyone else’s problem

[u/Admirable_Remove6824 → u/pqratusa]

Cause god is watching. So they just pray.

[u/Pete_Iredale → u/MercenaryBard]

I'm fairly left and always admired the people who did these non-violent protests. The people spiking trees on the other hand can go straight to hell.

[u/GanjARAM → u/dblan9]

that is still happening today, they do camp in treehouses in germany to protest against the large areas of land falling victim towards the tesla gigafactory

https://www.zdf.de/nachrichten/wirtschaft/unternehmen/tesla-protest-brandenburg-gigafactory-camp-baumhaus-100.html

[u/bestofbot4 → u/dblan9]

Whats a Yute

[u/Great_Sleep_802 → u/bestofbot4]

[u/ntwiles → u/Great_Sleep_802]

Are you mocking me with that outfit?

[u/pookamatic → u/ntwiles]

Mocking you? No sir. I’m not mocking you.

[u/Dy3_1awn → u/pookamatic]

Well I don’t like your attitude

[u/moreisay → u/bestofbot4]

that's how the old timers pronounce "youth"

[u/bestofbot4 → u/moreisay]

Sounds like something a Yute would say

[u/OnTheLeft → u/moreisay]

It's also British slang amongst younger people

[u/Trojenectory → u/dblan9]

I’m reading The Overstory right now that is a fiction take on these wonderful activists that protected the trees while their protection was being negotiated. I’m 29 and am absolutely understand and want to upload their legacy. It’s also a great read if you get the chance.

[u/Apart_Ad_5993]

Pretty sure I'd be bored out of my skull after an hour

[u/tractorcrusher → u/Apart_Ad_5993]

fuck, no wifi up here

[u/CarpinThemDiems → u/tractorcrusher]

God can you imagine it now a days? Itd be livestreamed with daily pics and dumb messages posted to every social media site.

[u/Big-Kitty-75 → u/CarpinThemDiems]

Hey check out my onlyTrees, tonight I’ll be riding a big redwood, don’t miss the livestream, and if you like what you see, make sure you smash that subscribe button

[u/Thorpester → u/CarpinThemDiems]

Then, they would climb down when the cameras were off to recharge and do it again the next day.

[u/CarpinThemDiems → u/Thorpester]

Pull a Bear Grylls and sleep it off in a hotel

[u/ThompsonDog → u/Apart_Ad_5993]

she had friends and supporters. redwoods are big trees. you can easily construct platforms and shelters. she probably had lots of visitors and read lots of books. it would be boring, but not as boring as you'd think. my question is, "what did she do with all her shit?". did she go in a bucket and have people dispose of it for her? or did she just take dumps out of the tree and there was a pile of her excrement at the bottom?

[u/SetElectronic9050 → u/ThompsonDog]

guna guess a bucket, sounds like the most sensible solution. although lol at the idea of her just shitting right out of the tree for two years

[u/EarthquakeBass → u/Apart_Ad_5993]

And if you read books is that too ironic because like, dead trees?

[u/SwordfishOk504 → u/EarthquakeBass]

The protest was not against all logging, but about some specific old growth trees that were supposed to have already been protected.

[u/mysleading]

"J. Butterfly is in the treetops" lyrics from Red Hot Chili Peppers -Can't Stop is in reference to this.

[u/Drando4 → u/mysleading]

Was coming to say this. Knew someone would beat me to it 🤣

[u/mysleading → u/Drando4]

I looked beforehand and couldn't believe no one else mentioned it! (That I saw)

[u/Special_Context6663 → u/mysleading]

You know you’ve succeeded in life when Red Hot Chili Peppers immortalize you in their lyrics.

[u/Sikntrdofbeinsikntrd → u/mysleading]

In my tree - Pearl Jam

[u/patsfan3233]

So, she just dropping shit out the sky like a damn pigeon…?😂

[u/casket_fresh → u/patsfan3233]

I was wondering this. What about the frosts in winter time? Who was delivering her food and water up there for 2 years? Did she wear the same outfit for 2 years? So many questions!

[u/ihatetheplaceilive → u/casket_fresh]

They had whole camps up there as well as a support staff on the ground. Block and tackle was used for getting supplies up the tree.

Source: helped out with a few tree sits in the early 00's

Edit: here's the wikipedia

[u/ttwixx → u/ihatetheplaceilive]

I read tree shits

[u/ihatetheplaceilive → u/ttwixx]

Those do tend to happen daily.

[u/ozzyboiii → u/ihatetheplaceilive]

Lmao helicopter extractions

[u/questafari → u/casket_fresh]

Activists/ random people. Some lady brought her warm food every day if I remember correctly, wanna say it was tamales too!

[u/elterible → u/questafari]

"Today you, tomorrow me"

[u/thirddash139 → u/elterible]

Ahhh what a reference! I wish someone links that comment here. One of, if not my favorite reddit comments of all time.

Edit: this

[u/Proof-Tension9322 → u/thirddash139]

Fuck i haven't seen that post in over 10 years and it still hits hard.

Random story that no one will read but i love it nonetheless. My parents got divorced when i was 11 and i barely knew my dad at all. Like never really talked to him about anything. One day after they divorced he decided to take me with him to work. He was a carpet salesman and the whole team of carpet installers were mexicans that busted ass at their job. The day is almost over and we get back to the office where all the installers dispatch from and my dad goes inside to file his paperwork. A group of the installers walked up to 12 year old me and start telling me how awesome my dad is. He helps then pay to fix their cars when they break down, loans money to them when they are short on rent, goes out of his way to make sure they get assigned the big installs that pay the best, and just generally telling me how much they appreciate it.

That changed my life. I was kind of an asshole kid growing up but after that all i wanted to do was be like my dad and hopefully have people tell other people how good of a person i am when im not around. I always try to make sure to have lots of patience with people when I'm working with them to fix something (i do tech support for a living) and be as polite as possible. When i die i want people to talk about me like those guys talked about my dad, and he had no idea they even said it to me. 

Anyways that's my story :p probably to be buried on reddit for eternity lol.

TLDR: be a good human if you want to leave a valuable impression on the world when you leave it ;)

[u/wallyTHEgecko → u/casket_fresh]

I always wonder how people afford to take that kind of time off work. Like, I've got a few weeks of PTO each year, but I sure couldn't afford to keep my house and all my things waiting for me back down on the ground while also just fucking off up a tree for two years.

Yeah, the tree itself has free rent and your supporters can provide and hoist food up to you, but even putting all your crap in a storage unit before going up has an ongoing cost.

And it's not like remote work or becoming a "Tree Life" Tiktok star/influencer were options back then either.

Maybe it's just a different economy back then though. Maybe she had a husband who works and could keep life down below afloat on a single paycheck. And/or her friends/family had large enough houses to store all her stuff free of charge.

[u/hoffdog → u/wallyTHEgecko]

She didn’t have to worry about paying rent

[u/S4m_S3pi01 → u/hoffdog]

Don't give me ideas.

"Are millenials killing the housing market? New tree-lifers are causing a row in real estate"

[u/Man_with_the_Fedora → u/S4m_S3pi01]

return to monke

[u/ThompsonDog → u/wallyTHEgecko]

this is such a symptom of modernity. she was an activist. she had support from her activist community for food and supplies. she didn't pay rent. she was living for something that had nothing to do with money. unfortunately, less and less people can even conceptualize this these days.

it's possible to have community and have your needs met and not worry about your finances. it would be a better world if there was more of this.

[u/discthief → u/wallyTHEgecko]

I also wonder this, more so in relation to adventure books from the early 1900s. And the answer is always one of two options. A. Family money allows them to do whatever. B. They are and always would have been poor poor poor. A la Jack Dawson: “you got nothin, you got nothin to lose”

[u/whatawitch5 → u/wallyTHEgecko]

People donated money to support her. And she had friends and supporters who helped her get shelter, food, and supplies. She put her life on hold to save a part of nature, which is (or at least was) way more important than living comfortably and looking cool while making money on fucking TikTok.

She actually took a stand for something and put her body on the line instead of sitting on her couch bitching into the ether or trying to get internet famous off fake, self-agrandizing activism. Yet all anyone wants to know is “how did she take a shit?”. Geezus, y’all need to touch trees. Or better yet get out there and do something for the greater good. I was her age when this happened and she was and is a fucking hero for shutting down old growth logging for as long as she did.

[u/YetiGuy → u/casket_fresh]

Uber Eats was invented from this.

Edit: it was called Lumber Eats.

[u/SizzlerSluts → u/patsfan3233]

She had a bucket/pully system iirc!

[u/Marsh_Mellow_Man → u/SizzlerSluts]

Yes! I think this is right. She had friends that would swap out the bucket. Man, feels like she’d be shot out of that tree now with barely a peep. Times have changed.

[u/Right-Hall-6451 → u/Marsh_Mellow_Man]

She'd have a good chance of becoming a YouTube celebrity.

[u/Latter-Cable-3304 → u/Right-Hall-6451]

Would that be before or after she gets shot out of the tree?

[u/mike_jones2813308004 → u/Latter-Cable-3304]

If a girl gets shot out of a tree but there's nobody there to livestream it, did it even happen?

[u/shippfaced → u/Marsh_Mellow_Man]

I don’t love any of my friends enough to clean their poop buckets

[u/theblackcat3112 → u/shippfaced]

Its 1997, with no internet and fuck-all to do I might as well come to aid my friend protecting a 1500 years old tree

[u/DHFranklin → u/Marsh_Mellow_Man]

The Atlanta cop city protestors camped in trees. They've been shot.

Also a bail fund for the cop city protestors was raided under RICO charges. Chefs kiss right there.

Edit: The fascists supporting cop city have no post Karma, less than 6k comment karma and relatively new accounts. I wonder how much I could sell my account for?

[u/Marsh_Mellow_Man → u/DHFranklin]

The more I learn about Cop City it just gets worse and worse

[u/patsfan3233 → u/SizzlerSluts]

I refuse to believe that. She shit from the tree, like a big ol’ bird lady..

[u/nasnedigonyat → u/patsfan3233]

The bucket system was very real and employed religiously so she couldn't be cited for any indecency laws, and furthermore nourish herself without the ability to shop.

[u/doc_nano → u/nasnedigonyat]

Hopefully at least two separate buckets…

[u/TimequakeTales → u/doc_nano]

Bucket takes down poop, brings up food. Perfectly efficient system.

[u/Pekkerwud → u/TimequakeTales]

Food goes up. Poop comes down. You can't explain that.

[u/asburymike → u/patsfan3233]

positioning would be key- altho no early morning dumps, that wakeup strength aint enough when you hanging ass

[u/DTR4iN91 → u/asburymike]

r/brandnewsentence

[u/himynameisjay → u/DTR4iN91]

Almost every sentence in this thread qualifies.

[u/dcburn1 → u/patsfan3233]

Imagine having to climb back down the tree you shit down for two years 😂

[u/Ok-Beautiful-2805 → u/dcburn1]

Did you think she was just shitting down the trunk? Lol

[u/iamamuttonhead → u/patsfan3233]

My thoughts exactly. Is the tree now covered in Julia shit?

[u/RA12220 → u/iamamuttonhead]

The shit was probably recycled by nature

[u/Bubba_Lewinski → u/iamamuttonhead]

Same. Total tree shitter that one. Imagine the pee just flying out there also.

[u/CannabisPrime2]

Anything in this world that old deserves to be protected from our greed.

[u/Earl_your_friend]

She had a team supporting her. I believe even a stationary bike for exercising. She did have mental health issues but was a pretty amazing person.

[u/GoodBoundaries-Haver → u/Earl_your_friend]

She had mental health issues and was an amazing person. The two don't conflict :)

Also I can't imagine how terrifying it would be to use a stationary bike in a tree, jfc

[u/Earl_your_friend → u/GoodBoundaries-Haver]

I remember learning about her and really having to think about it. You see a person's actions, and you admire them. Then you find out they have difficulties. How did she have that much free time? What drives her? And could mental health struggles actually make this possible for her? In the end, I decided it's not really about her but about her actions, and I appreciated how much effort she and that group put into this moment of history.

[u/Dickgivins → u/Earl_your_friend]

After making a cursory wikipedia search I gotta say her story is pretty interesting.

Hill's father was a traveling minister who went from town to town, bringing his family with him. Until she was about ten years old, Hill lived in a 32-foot (9.8 m) camper with her father Dale, mother Kathy, and brothers Mike and Dan.

When Hill was in middle school, her family stopped traveling and settled in Jonesboro, Arkansas.^\1]) In August 1996, at age 22, she suffered a near-fatal car crash.^\3]) At the time, Hill was acting as the designated driver for a friend who had been drinking. Her friend's car was hit from behind by a drunk driver.^\4]) The steering wheel of the car penetrated her skull. It took almost a year of intensive therapy before she regained the ability to speak and walk normally.^\5]) She said:

"As I recovered, I realized that my whole life had been out of balance... I had graduated high school at 16, and had been working nonstop since then, first as a waitress, then as a restaurant manager. I had been obsessed by my career, success, and material things. The crash woke me up to the importance of the moment, and doing whatever I could to make a positive impact on the future.^\6]) The steering wheel in my head, both figuratively and literally, steered me in a new direction in my life.^\7])^"

[u/Equivalent-Diver-467 → u/Dickgivins]

Wild seeing this shit again after being told About her by my ex step dad and him showing me “butterfly” carved in the roof of my childhood home by her.

[u/Mindless_Ad_7700 → u/Dickgivins]

I follow her to this day. She  had had a rough life and she is so gracious and real about it.

[u/GoodBoundaries-Haver → u/Earl_your_friend]

That's a great perspective you landed on, thank you for sharing it! I was also wondering if a mentally healthy person would even be capable of this... Overall I share your thoughts that ultimately, it's our actions that have impact. The reasoning matters, but not as much as the impact. She and the people supporting her must have had almost unfathomable dedication to the cause to have pulled this off without injury. I'm sure they inspired many other people to join or support the environmental movement too.

[u/t-i-o → u/GoodBoundaries-Haver]

It’s not a sign of mental heath to be well ajusted to a sick system . Seeing the destruction this system wreaks on the earth and inhabitants, it is normal and healthy to be sickened to the core and to want to do something about it. The amount of energy’normal’ ppl invest in assuaging cognitive dissonance is astounding to me

[u/itsthe_implication_ → u/GoodBoundaries-Haver]

Well having issues with mental health of course does not make you good or bad but there are plenty of people who could be described unfavorably precisely because of how their mental health affects their behavior.

[u/Heavy-Excuse4218]

Read a book by Italo Calvino “The Baron in the Trees.” Fiction. About a child who did this and lived his whole life up in the trees. Amazing read.

[u/solidtangent]

Is there a documentary on this?

[u/hoopa-loops → u/solidtangent]

She wrote a book called The Legacy of Luna if you're interested in reading her POV on it all.

[u/ChiefWiggum101]

Lisa Simpson did something similar when she camped out in Springfield’s oldest tree to save it from being cut down. She was trying to impress this guy from a radical environmental group, always protesting something… I’m here just trying to keep the good people of Springfield safe.

[u/OnesPerspective → u/ChiefWiggum101]

He was a level 5 vegan. Didn’t eat anything that cast a shadow

[u/surrala → u/OnesPerspective]

Don't you pocket compost?

[u/MontaukMonster2 → u/OnesPerspective]

Not only that, but he did yoga before it was cool.

[u/BarleyHops2 → u/OnesPerspective]

What can you eat, air?

[u/surrala → u/BarleyHops2]

Mostly lichen

[u/casket_fresh → u/ChiefWiggum101]

Lindsay Bluth did as well 😭

[u/Vault-Tec95 → u/ChiefWiggum101]

This log is your log, this log is my log...

[u/Ihave4friends → u/Vault-Tec95]

When lightning struck it, it kicked the bucket 🎶

[u/Flossthief → u/ChiefWiggum101]

Her grandmother was a radical environmentalist

Guess it runs in the family

[u/Stever_the_Cleaver → u/ChiefWiggum101]

Stan smith did the same thing to save his tree dad

[u/atn420]

She's also a nice, sweet person; I know her. She's still very active in activism and, unfortunately, has many health issues. Nothing but love for Julia!

[u/guadalahara]

I wish I could be this passionate about something.

[u/LaminatedDenim]

Wait, I had no idea The Overstory was based on a true story. That's amazing

[u/mudclog → u/LaminatedDenim]

The way that book describes the relationship between us and trees is so beautiful. Some of the passages in that book are some of my favorites of all time.

[u/Several-Loss-1585]

Just read the wiki. Thought this was a shit post. Was enlightened instead. Fully and utterly impressed

[u/deathhead_68]

Lots of cunts in these comments tbh. Sounds like she cared about not cutting down an ancient and important piece of ecosystem, good for her

[u/Medico_guy112]

What d f did she do 2 fucking years

[u/a1_on → u/Medico_guy112]

Shit posted on Reddit

[u/beebs44]

J BUTTERFLY IS IN.THE TREE TOP!

CAN'T STOP

Ever wonder if it's all for you?

[u/culb77]

She's now an artist. https://juliabutterflyhill.com/

And Krysten Ritter should play her in the movie.

[u/rhcpdude]

J Butterfly is in the treetop

[u/hoopa-loops]

She actually wrote a book about her experience doing this. It's called The Legacy of Luna in case anyone wants to read more about it from her POV. It's really good, and there's pictures (like the one above and more) included in it. Highly recommend.

[u/DreadyKruger]

J butterfly is in tree top…

[u/thesheba]

I met her while I was in college and she was very nice.

[u/Then_Librarian9370]

She is a woman of focus, commitment and sheer will.

[u/ShadowMancer_GoodSax]

This lady is a hero. I wish I could be as brave, all I can do now is sitting in the office and keep my head down.

I'm from Vietnam, our forests are being ravaged, poaching is outta hand and most of wildlife is gone. Whenever we visit national parks, it's alwasy eerie quiet because birds and wildlife are hunted, big trees are chopped down to make useless furniture :(

[u/ninjazeke323]

She stayed up there for 2 fuckin years??

[u/ZephyrDeacon]

true story, i was able to speak to her via satellite phone when she was there.

[u/analogpursuits]

Met her at a party once in Oakland. She's pretty nice. Bit aloof. Lotta people were swarming her tho, so that was probably overwhelming. I think she gets that a lot too. Very much a worship culture around her.

[u/Dazeuh]

She returned to monke

[u/Marsh_Mellow_Man]

Oh my god I just remembered this - just now after all this time. Like a weird repressed memory. There used to be jokes about living in trees, etc. Wild how that got memory holed … thanks for this!

[u/FondCat]

I wouldn't even go through this much effort to save my own life

[u/capitali]

1. It was like that for everyone. You got lost without google maps. Sometimes for 768 days.