Environmental activist to visit Wheaton on Earth Day

For more than two years, Julia Butterfly Hill lived in the upper reaches of an ancient redwood tree to save it from destruction by a logging company. On Earth Day, April 22, Hill will visit Wheaton to talk about that experience and her continuing work as an environmental activist.

The event will take place at 8 p.m. in the Balfour-Hood Atrium. Barbara Darling-Smith, assistant professor of religion, will interview Hill, drawing upon questions written by Rachel Otis '09 and Eric Brownstein '09. A question-and-answer session will follow.

Hill was 23 years old when she began her "tree-sit" in December 1997, occupying a six-by-eight-foot platform nearly 200 feet off the ground. She came down from the tree she named Luna 738 days later, after the Pacific Lumber Company agreed to preserve the tree and a three-acre buffer zone. She has since become a leading voice for the environmental movement.

Although Hill undertook the tree-sit on her own, her protest soon attracted the attention of fellow environmental activists, who provided her with food, supplies and moral support. She also drew notice from the news media, documentary filmmakers, and a number of rock stars and celebrities. During her tree-sit, Hill endured rain and snow, freezing temperatures and periods of hunger in the northern California forest.

Last summer, Rachel Otis read Hill's book, The Legacy of Luna, and was captivated.

"The first thing I thought after reading the book was, ‘How can I get this woman to come to Wheaton?'" says Otis, who will moderate the campus event. "I found it a thoroughly inspiring story—her perseverance was incredible."

The book not only illustrates the power of civil disobedience, but also "highlights the horrendous practices of the lumber industry," says Otis. "The redwoods are our oldest living things, and now we're killing them for paper…. The lumber companies napalm the forest as if we're in a war, but we're in a war with the thing that sustains us."

Determined to bring Hill to Wheaton, Otis applied for funding from several campus sources, but raised only half of what she needed for the speaker's fee. She broke the news to Hill's agent, expressing her disappointment in a heartfelt e-mail, and he soon called her to say that Hill wanted to come anyway. Otis's passion had impressed Hill.

Otis, who is part Native American, says that many of her beliefs reflect that part of her heritage, and that she has always felt connected to nature. But Hill's personal story of environmental activism, she says, has the power to "touch more than those who consider themselves to be environmentally conscious."

The event is open to all and is made possible with the support of the Student Government Association, the Venture Fund, Educational Council and the Green Initiatives Committee.