Julia Butterfly HillBy: Brock Johnson

About Julia Butterfly Hill

• Born February 18, 1974-Present, in Mount Vernon, Missouri, United States.

• Occupation: Environmental activist, and Motivational speaker for the Circle of Life Foundation

• Hill's dad worked as a traveling priest and shuttled her and her family in a camper and often explored campgrounds

• One day the family stopped for a hike, and a butterfly landed on Julia's finger, from that day on she was refered as "Butterfly"

• Julia got into a fatal drunk driving accident and was put into a hospital. She then began to reflect on her life to make a change for the world.

Contributions

• Ecuador Oil Pipeline Protest:

A pipeline was planned to run through The Andean Cloud Forest, in Quito, Ecuador, that contains many rare species of birds.

• Tax redirection:

Hill was a proponent of a tax redirection in 2003, and recieved $150,000 which she donated it to after school programs, arts programs, community gardens, Native American programs, alternatives to incaceration and other environmental projects.

• Tree sit (Most Famous):

Hill staged a protest to save a 1500 year old tree that was scheduled to be cut down. She lived in the tree, which she named "Luna," for 738 days. She suffered harsh weather, attacks from angry longers, around the clock helicopter coverage and so much more. Her slogan for this protest was "Save your elders." In which she meant that older trees shouldnt be cut down for logging and should be preseved.

Relevance to APES?

• The point of this class is to teach the environmental issues that we cause and to try and fix them as best as we can. Hill is a great example of taking action in the community for change. When she heard about the tree being cut down she had to intervene and save it.

Sources

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julia_Butterfly_Hill