Julia (Butterfly) Hill

My hero is Julia “Butterfly” Hill. Julia is my hero because of her environmental acts. Also because she had the courage to sit in a 600 foot tall redwood tree to prevent it from not being cut down. Hill is an American activist, environmentalist, poet, writer, educator, speaker, and founder of the organization Circle of Life.

Julia Hill was born February 18th 1974, Mount Vernon Missouri to Dale Edward Hill, a traveling minister, and Kathleen Anne DelGallo; she has two brothers. Later her parents divorced. Until the age of 10 Julia lived in Harrisburg Pennsylvania, where her parents started a church called Freedom Chapel. Hill went to a private school at age five and completed 1st and 2nd grade. After that Julia got homeschooled from grades 3 to 8. From ages 8-12 she lived in a 30 ft. camping trailer. At age 12 Hill and her family moved to Jonesboro (Craighead county). There she attended high school until 1990. She graduated in 1991 after completing a remaining half credit in English.

From ages 15-20 Julia went through a rebellious stage. She was drinking and smoking. Over time it got worse and worse. Hill also went through the anorexia and bulimia stages. Julia did stuff that killed some of her friends. She’s lucky she’s still alive.

She said one day she woke up and said to herself: "I don’t want to be an alcoholic anymore, I don’t want to be an addict anymore,” and that was the end of her rebellious stage. In 1996 Julia was in a car accident. Afterwards she started a spiritual quest, rejected the faith of her childhood and came away believing that we could transform ourselves; this eventually led to the environmental cause opposed to the destruction of the redwood trees in Humboldt County California. Julia began tree-sitting in a 600 year old, 180 foot tall Californian Redwood Tree. She didn’t set foot on the ground for 738 days, protecting the beloved redwood tree. Hill made a deal with the lumber company and came down out of the tree December 18th 1999. During the two years sitting in Luna (the redwood tree) she attracted world wide attention for her non-violence in defense of the forest.

Julia Hill is my hero because she was brave enough to sit in a tree for over two years to protect it.

Another reason Hill is my hero is because she believed that she could stop drinking, and stop smoking. And she had enough courage to pull herself out of it.

The last reason Julia is my hero is because she cares about our planet enough to try; not a lot of people can do this.

I look up to to Julia Hill because I care about our planet too. And I hope one day I can do something to help protect our earth as well. I hope after reading this you do too.