Luna (tree)

Luna is located on a windswept ridge overlooking the community of Stafford,{{cite news | last =Wilson | first =Nicholas | title =Julia Butterfly's "Luna" Redwood Slashed | publisher =Albion Monitor | date =November 29, 2000 | url =http://www.monitor.net/monitor/0011a/luna.html | access-date =November 25, 2013 | archive-url =https://archive.today/20131125191946/http://www.monitor.net/monitor/0011a/luna.html | archive-date =November 25, 2013 | url-status =dead }} north of Scotia.{{cite web | title =Julia Hill and Her Tree sit in Luna | work =The Redwood Forest: Exploring the Eel River Valley | publisher =SunnyFortuna.com | date =2013 | url =http://sunnyfortuna.com/explore/redwoods-julia-hill-and-luna.htm | access-date =November 25, 2013 }} Due to its proximity to the small community of Stafford, this tree has also been referred to as the "Stafford Giant".

Despite some news reports to the contrary, Luna is not located in the Headwaters Forest Reserve, a preserved old growth forest.

On New Year's Eve 1996, a landslide in Stafford caused by clearcut logging by Pacific Lumber Company (Maxxam) on steep slopes above the community resulted in most of the community being buried up to {{convert|17|ft|m}} in mud and tree debris; eight homes were completely destroyed.{{cite news | title =Stafford Slide | work =Living on Earth | publisher =Public Radio International | date =March 16, 2001 | url =http://www.loe.org/shows/segments.html?programID=01-P13-00011&segmentID=8 | access-date = November 25, 2013}}{{cite video | people =NBC Dateline | title =Interview with Julia Butterfly Hill | medium =video | publisher =National Broadcasting Company | date = February 14, 1999}}

The 1,000-year-old lightning-struck tree{{cite news | last =Curtius | first =Mary | title =Tree-Sitter Takes Protest to New Heights in Old Growth: Activist lives in redwood owned by lumber company in dispute over logging Humboldt County forest. | newspaper =Los Angeles Times | date =October 22, 1998 | url =https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1998-oct-22-mn-35101-story.html | access-date = November 25, 2013}} was named by a group of Earth First! members, who built a small platform from salvaged wood to serve as a tree-sit platform.{{cite book |title=The Legacy of Luna: the story of a tree, a woman and her struggle to save the Redwoods |last=Hill |first= Julia Butterfly |author-link=Julia Butterfly Hill |year=2000 |publisher=HarperSanFrancisco |pages=23 |isbn=0-06-251658-2}} As the moon was rising at the time, they chose the name Luna, the Latin word for moon, to commemorate the event.{{cite news | first=Glen | last=Martin | title=A Year in the Sky | date=1998-12-08 | url =http://www.sfgate.com/default/article/A-YEAR-IN-THE-SKY-Last-December-10-Julia-2974427.php| work =San Francisco Chronicle | access-date = November 25, 2013 | quote = They don't care about their employees, and they don't care about their forests. When they're finished, there'll be no jobs, no trees - just eroded earth. We don't have a problem with sustained-yield logging. But this isn't sustained-yield, and the loggers will ultimately suffer with the rest of us." }}

For 738 days, from December 10, 1997, to December 18, 1999, forest activist Julia Butterfly Hill lived on the platform in the tree, {{convert|180|ft|m}} above the ground. Hill occupied Luna in order to save it and the surrounding grove from being clear-cut by the Pacific Lumber Company (owned by Maxxam, Inc. and Charles Hurwitz).{{cite web |url=http://www.sfgate.com/green/article/Vandals-Slash-Giant-Redwood-Tree-sitter-Julia-3302945.php |title=Vandals Slash Giant Redwood / Tree-sitter Julia Butterfly Hill's former home chain-sawed |last1=Martin |first1=Glen |date=28 November 2000 |work=San Francisco Chronicle |publisher=The Hearst Corporation |access-date=November 25, 2013}} The Pacific Lumber Company and Hill reached an agreement to save the tree and a {{convert|200|ft|m}} buffer zone around it for $50,000 after which Hill left the tree. Later she wrote a book called The Legacy of Luna about her experiences treesitting in the giant redwood. Some of her predictions came true, as Maxxam, Inc. failed in bankruptcy after cutting a 100-year timber reserve in 20 years, leaving employees and suppliers in the lurch.{{cite news | last =Cobb | first =David | title =Maxxam's Sordid History with Pacific Lumber | publisher =Eureka Times-Standard | date =June 12, 1008 | url =http://www.times-standard.com/therev/ci_9560701 | access-date = November 25, 2013 }}

In November 2000, an unknown vandal used a chainsaw to cut halfway through the tree.{{cite news | last =Martin | first =Glen

| title =Steel Collar Fashioned for Slashed Redwood / Experts design system to respect Hill's wishes of avoiding any invasive measures | newspaper = San Francisco Chronicle

| date =December 19, 2000 | url =http://www.sfgate.com/default/article/Steel-Collar-Fashioned-for-Slashed-Redwood-3302221.php | access-date = November 25, 2013 }} In 2001, Eureka civil engineer Steve Salzman headed Luna's "medical team" which designed and built a bracing system to help the tree withstand the extreme windstorms with peak winds between {{convert|60|and|100|mph|-1}}.{{cite web |url=http://www.forestecologynetwork.org/TMW_LateWinter2001/cabling_luna.html |title=The Cabling of Luna |last1=Donahue |first1=Paul |date=Winter 2001 |work=The Maine Woods |publisher=Forest Ecology Network |access-date=18 January 2013 |quote = The gravel road up to Luna took us through PL (Pacific Lumber) clearcuts of all conditions - impossibly steep, naked, eroded hillsides where not a single plant had grown since our last visit in June 1999, clearcuts with scrubby orange vegetation killed by herbicide spray, and other clearcuts still black and smoking from the Napalm dropped to burn off the slash. From high on the ridge above Luna we had a clear view of the blight of PL's patchwork clearcuts covering the landscape. Most bizarre of all, the whole time we were working to save a single tree we could hear the roar of a large twin-bladed Chinook helicopter coursing over the steep slopes across the Eel River from us, hauling out huge tree trunks in a PL helicopter logging operation.}} They were assisted by Cal Poly Humboldt professor Steven Sillett.

In early 2002, naturalist Paul Donahue noted that Luna had survived the cut.{{cite web |url=http://www.pauldonahue.net/17_months.html |title=Luna - 17 Months Since Being Cut, and Still Doing Well |last1=Donahue |first1=Paul |date=Spring 2002 |access-date=November 25, 2013}} Luna is currently under the stewardship of Sanctuary Forest, a nonprofit organization.

• The Legacy of Luna, Hill's 2000 memoirs about her efforts to save the tree
• Butterfly, a 2000 documentary film about Hill's campaign
• List of individual trees

{{Reflist|2}}

• {{cite web |url=http://www.salon.com/1999/12/08/luna_3/ |title=You've got tree: A young woman who's been sitting in a tree for two years is offering billionaire Charles Hurwitz the opportunity of a lifetime. Will he have the wisdom to accept it? |last1=Cruickshank |first1=Douglas |date=8 December 1999 |work=The Maine Woods |publisher=Forest Ecology Network |access-date=November 25, 2013}}
• Ficklin, James and Penelope Andrews [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lag6WyFqKvg LUNA The Stafford Giant Tree Sit]
• {{cite book|author=Dawn Fitzgerald|title=Julia Butterfly Hill: Saving the Redwoods|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wW3xTjjcAVAC|year=2002|publisher=Lerner Publications|isbn=978-0-7613-2654-0|access-date=November 25, 2013}}
• {{cite book|author1=Andrew Friedland|author2=Rick Relyea|author3=David Courard-Hauri|title=Environmental Science: Foundations and Applications|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PF5j6XsbamMC&pg=PA261|date=25 February 2011|publisher=W. H. Freeman|isbn=978-1-4292-4029-1|pages=261–}}
• {{cite news | last =Martin | first =Glen | title =Tree Specialists Working Against Clock / Ideas are offered to keep vandalized redwood standing | newspaper =San Francisco Chronicle | date =November 29, 2000 | url =http://www.sfgate.com/default/article/Tree-Specialists-Working-Against-Clock-Ideas-3236424.php | access-date =November 25, 2013 }}
• {{cite web |url=http://www.motherearthnews.com/Nature-Community/2001-02-01/Talking-to-the-Trees.aspx |title=Talking to the Trees |last1=Mastrocola |first1=Kristina |date=February 2001 |work=Mother Earth News |publisher=Ogden Publications |access-date=November 25, 2013}}
• {{cite web |url=http://www.circleoflife.org/inspiration/luna/archive/luna_update_stuart.htm |title=Notes From Luna--Spring 2007 |last1=Moskowitz |first1=Stuart |work=Circle of Life Foundation |access-date=November 25, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131006093358/http://www.circleoflife.org/inspiration/luna/archive/luna_update_stuart.htm |archive-date=October 6, 2013 |url-status=dead }}
• {{cite news | last =Salter | first =Stephanie | title =Attack on Luna Another Test for Hill | newspaper = San Francisco Chronicle | date =December 3, 2000 | url =http://www.sfgate.com/default/article/Attack-on-Luna-Another-Test-for-Hill-2724322.php | access-date = November 25, 2013 }}
• {{cite web |url=http://www.earthisland.org/journal/index.php/eij/article/luna_still_stands/ |title=Luna Still Stands |last1=Stolzman |first1=Dana |year=2001 |work=Earth Island Journal |publisher=Earth Island Institute |access-date=November 25, 2013}}

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Category:Individual coast redwood trees

Category:History of Humboldt County, California

Category:Nonviolent occupation

Category:Julia Butterfly Hill

Category:Pacific Lumber Company