"I HAVE GIVEN UP MY SOCIETY WORLD SELF:"

SELF AND OTHER IN THE JULIA BUTTERFLY TAPES

by

Geraldine Goldberg

A Thesis

Presented to

The Faculty of Humboldt State University

In Partial Fulfillment

Of the Requirements for the Degree

Master of Arts

In Sociology

August, 1999 "I HAVE GIVEN UP MY SOCIETY WORLD SELF:"

SELF AND OTHER IN THE JULIA BUTTERFLY TAPES

by

Geraldine Goldberg

Approved by:

Elizabeth Watson, Ph.D., Major Professor Date

John Gai, LCSW, Committee Member Date

Jerrold Krause, Ph.D., Committee Member Date

Elizabeth Watson, Ph.D. Graduate Coordinator Date

Ronald A. Fritzsche, Ph.D. Date Dean for Research and Graduate Studies Abstract

"I have given up my society world self:" Self and Other in the Julia Butterfly Tapes

Geraldine Goldberg

The purpose of this thesis is to provide access to and social analysis of a set of live weekly radio conversations, as a case study of a woman living in a tree, as a nonviolent direct action. The Julia Butterfly Tapes result from the live radio conversations between Julia "Butterfly" Hill and me. As no other research will ever do, the tapes document the historic tree sit of this courageous and outspoken environmental activist. The tapes have been completely transcribed as a verbatim account of a year and a half in Julia's life in the tree from which her point of view may be determined. The information in this account/ethnography has been edited from our live radio conversations to comply with the requirements for the Master's degree. A broader scope of sociological inquiry concerning this unique case study remains for others throughout various disciplines for interpretation, analysis and further understanding.

iii Acknowledgements

Through my radio work with Julia "Butterfly" Hill I have been privileged to interact with so many wonderful members of the community. I appreciate all of the knowledge I gained in conversations with various forest activists and members of the Humboldt Watershed Council. Several colleagues from KHSU who were invaluable to the live on-air aspect of my work include Lynn Evans, Terry Green, and Katie Whiteside. For the superb transcriptions of the ongoing "Conversations with Julia Butterfly" I am extremely grateful to Ali Gross and Eric Thomas. Ali and

Eric skillfully transcribed some challenging material, and they have been very supportive of my work and Julia's tree sit. I thank them both for their heartfelt insights as well. Thanks also to my friends and family for understanding my priorities, especially to my son Harry Simpson, who helped me with the computer so many times and also sacrificed some at-home time during my long writing process. For their support and encouragement throughout my tenure at Humboldt

State University but critically during this thesis work, I gratefully acknowledge my

professors, Betsy Watson, John Gai, and Jerry Krause.

iv Dedication

This work is dedicated to Julia "Butterfly" Hill. Table of Contents

Abstract iii

Acknowledgements iv

Dedication v

Introduction 1

Part I: Methodology: An Application in Everyday Life 13

IA. In the Beginning 15

1.2 The Audience 16

1.3 Fieldwork 17

1.4 Longitudinal Qualitative Interviews 19

1.5 The Tapes of the Live Broadcasts 25

1.6 Self and Other in the Julia Butterfly Tapes 26

Part II: Setting the Scene 31

11.1 A Sense of Place 31

11.2 Self and Family 38

Part III: A Case Study of a Woman Living in a Tree 50

111.1 Living in a Tree: Julia's Everyday Life 51

111.2 Forest Activists 78

111.3 Some of the Ways Julia Participates with Society 86

III.3.a Phone, Pager, and Planner 87

III.3.b Julia's Radio 91

III.3.c. The Beacons 93 111.4 Some of the Others Who Have Joined Our Conversations 95

III.4.a Kristi Wrigley 96

III.4.b Nate Madsen 99

III.4.c Dale Hill 102

111.5 Sometimes We Talk about Other Issues in the News 105

III.5.a Iraq 106

III.5.b Jonesboro 107

III.5.c Yugoslavia 111

111.6 Sometimes We Talk About Other Media Talking about Julia 113

Part IV. Some Emergent Sociological Themes 119

IV.1 Universal Human Solidarity and the Dignity of the Self 120

IV.2 The Value of All Life 127

Part V. Conclusion 137

Notes 145

References 146

Figure 1 14 Introduction

The purpose of this ethnography is to present analysis of the research I conducted through radio conversations with environmental activist Julia "Butterfly"

Hill. Ethnography provides an authentic, realistic account of lived experience.

Postmodern ethnography includes the lived experience of both the writer and the written about.

As I discovered through my conversations with Julia Butterfly, the role of interviewer/writer is critical to the analysis. Scholars have talked about "a new, local and public ethnography joined with a public journalism." (Denzin, p. 274) This is a form of radical democratic social practice and may include "civic transformations in the public and private sphere (Denzin, p.277)." Universal human solidarity, the dignity of the self and the value of human life are goals of the new ethnography, and they are the emergent sociological themes I discovered through the "Conversations with Julia Butterfly."

This account is the result of my analysis of the live radio broadcast conversations between Julia Butterfly and me. Julia is a 25 year-old environmental activist who lives alone, high atop an ancient redwood tree on Pacific Lumber land.

She has pledged to remain in the tree she calls Luna until she is certain that the tree will not be logged. Julia's tree sit began on December 10, 1997 as an action of the radical environmental group, EarthFirst! Julia's personal spiritual journey began,

1 2 prior to climbing Luna, after recovering from a near-fatal car accident, when she sold all her worldly possessions, bought camping gear and headed west. When she arrived in Humboldt County and saw her first redwood trees, she fell to her knees and cried. That is when she really knew that everything in life is connected, and that love is the key ingredient.

I strongly embrace the power of public radio to provide access to the airwaves for unheard voices and for ideas that might otherwise not be discussed. I am very interested in my community and in the environment. Following my second bout with breast cancer I began a spiritual journey, which brought me a deep understanding of the need for a clean and healthy environment. At that time I also became aware of the concept that everything in life is connected, and that love is the key ingredient.

Julia and I have never met face-to-face, although our conversations are a regular, once-a-week part of each of our everyday lives. Julia, of course, speaks from a cell phone, high atop Luna, while I am at the on-air controls at the KHSU studio. The conversations are also regular for our radio audience. Potentially, there are 120,000 people listening at any one time to the radio broadcast of this telephone conversation between two women.

Although the conversations are ongoing, those included in this analysis occurred between March 1998 and July of 1999. Except for two, non-broadcast

hour-long interviews, all conversations were broadcast live on KHSU-FM as a

feature of the Tuesday Home Page, a radio magazine.' The archived text resulting 3 from our ongoing live broadcast conversations provides the data for this and future qualitative analyses.

Throughout the body of this work, I have indicated the date of each specific conversation and I have organized the conversations by topic. Under each topic, the edited conversations follow in chronological order. The questions I ask Julia are minimized for clarification and are indented and italicized in this document. Julia's specific answers directly follow those italicized questions.

KHSU-FM

The opportunity for me to create the "Conversations with Julia Butterfly" came about through my involvement with KHSU-FM. KHSU is the public radio station licensed to Humboldt State University. The station's mission is to serve the needs of the community by offering a wide variety of information and music programming. One of the offerings is a weekday radio magazine, the KHSU Home

Page. Interviews and discussions of local interest are the mainstays of the program.

I have hosted the Tuesday Home Page for several years. In addition to broadcasting an east-county weekly update and the community calendar, I host the KHSU

"Community Garden Club" on the air and the "Conversations with Julia Butterfly," all within the half hour allotted the Home Page. 4 April 2, 1998:

KHSU is fund-raising right now. We are trying to raise fifty thousand dollars, and we have two more days to do it. What might you say to our listeners in order to get them to contribute to the station?

Well, I encourage them to contribute. KHSU is doing an incredible job of allowing the local concerns and ideas of the communities to be brought forth in a public forum. That is really important in our community. It is really important that people be informed and have a place to talk about issues that concern them, and KHSU is doing an incredibly wonderful job of that. So I would encourage people to call, I believe the phone number is 826-4805.

It is! There's a room full of people applauding. I wish you could see this!

Well, thank you! I appreciate it. You've allowed my voice to be heard. I'm one hundred and eighty feet above the ground. I could yell at the top of my lungs, and my voice might only barely make it down to the bottom of the hill. It has been really important for what's happening here to bring light to a cause. It is really important that there are stations like KHSU, and so I am really, really thankful for what you've done, in giving myself a voice that reaches farther than the bottom of the hill. We'd love for our listeners to call 826-4805. Issues that are important to us all, including those concerning the redwood forests, can't make it out to people if we don't support things like radio stations that are about the real news and supporting the real issues. 5 July 2, 1998:

I want to read to you a comment that was phoned in to KHSU's listener

comment line last week. A woman who sounded very annoyed left this message: " I

just wanted to tell you that I am really tired of hearing from that woman who is

living in the tree. I don't think that she really has anything to add to KHSU. She

seems to be acting as an expert on many things, and to me she has no business being

talked to as if she were an expert. She is simply a lady living in a tree." Do you

want to respond to that?

I am definitely a lady living in a tree. But that is a key element. I have been here for seven months now. It has given me a level of expertise because I have been able to witness things from an incredible vantagepoint and an incredible experience that no one else has ever done before. That gives me a level of understanding and knowledge that no one else has. Furthermore, as I have spoken with you before, it doesn't take an expert to see that what is happening is wrong. It doesn't take a scientist with letters that denote a degree at the end of a name, and it doesn't take politicians who have been elected to supposedly represent people's views. All it takes is for us to open our eyes and pay attention, and that is where expertise comes in to me. So I would hope that whoever it was that called in that comment, if they have true experience too, I want open dialogue and open communication. I am not

here saying that I am a know it all. I am saying that I have been here absorbing the information that is coming to me from every level so that we can make a wise and informed decision that protects not just the environment, but people's lives. 6 July 9, 1998:

211 days, can you believe it?

No, and yes. It seems more like it is just one long continuous day that I am working, just as hard as ever to spread the message of love and truth and respect for all life with everyone I possibly can. You know communication is such an important key in all of this. Like I spoke on the recorded message with you, last week, that when the person called in their concern about not wanting to hear me every week, that I really want open dialogue. I really want communication.

July 23, 1998:

Julia, is there anything else you would like our listeners to know?

I am really enjoying this forum of getting all of the different people who are a part of this bigger picture involved. I think it is fantastic, thank you, Geraldine.

Well it is really great for KHSU as a public radio station to get as many voices of our public out there as we can.

August 27, 1998:

Hi Julia, 260 days right?

I believe so. I think you are one of the last people keeping count. All I know is the tenth of every month is a new month for me. That is about all I can keep up with.

Before we get started with what we want to talk about today, I want to give listeners an update: that you and I will be moving to Tuesdays starting next week. 7 That's right. I am going to have to do a whole lot to remember the change myself. It has become ingrained in me, and I would know that Thursdays at one, you and I have fantastic conversations. I am going to have to switch that inner time clock.

Me too. I am just sitting here counting up on my fingers how many months we have been meeting, at one on Thursdays, and my count is seven months.

It will be fantastic. We will be sharing a whole new day together. We can start a whole new kind of record with our talks.

An Overview

In this analysis, my own narrative supplements Julia's descriptions of people and places. I have a unique position in that I participate in the conversations, and now I am presenting my account of those conversations. Over the time that Julia and

I have been talking, we have discussed many subjects, including the forest saga.

However, I am particularly drawn to Julia's description of her everyday life and how she views herself and society, and how that knowledge is enhanced through the authentic chronology of conversations.

Each conversation sustains a particular image of reality: that of a woman whose participation in society is dependent upon technology. Her participation in society is enhanced through technology as well, since she essentially has unlimited access to all types of media around the globe as a means of espousing her values and fulfilling the goals of the tree sit. 8 In Julia's words, on May 7, 1998:

The tree sits have three purposes: one, to protect the tree that it is in, and hopefully a few around it. Number two is to slow down the logging practices while the people who work within the court system on the legal side of things do their work. And the third is to bring about public awareness.

In an effort to broaden the scope of the conversations into a true sociological study, I sometimes ask Julia very specific questions about society. Early in the broadcasts, Julia said that she has given up "her society world self." Here is part of our conversation, a year or so later, when I asked her to talk about what it means to her, to give up her society world self.

In Julia's words, on May 11, 1999:

The hardest part for me about giving up my society world self in the beginning was the letting go of attachment. Societal world self is who we all are being led to believe we are supposed to be in today's postmodern world, in our industrial, technological world. And letting go of that allowed me to embrace the creation, the gift that is the breath that enters my body, the gift of life that we're all a part of.

It is sometimes difficult for me to account for how the "Conversations" have continued for such a long time. Certainly no one expected Julia to be up in the tree for so long. The "Conversations" were designed to provide active participation in 9 society for a woman who is living in a tree and to provide the radio audience a firsthand account of living in a tree. The "Conversations" continue and remain relevant because issues relating to the environment and the timber industry are important to this community. But perhaps more to the point, public radio listeners are interested in listening to everyday people engaged in everyday conversations about their everyday lives.

March 26, 1998:

So, do you really plan to be up there indefinitely?

Well, you know I don't have any plans. One thing I have realized with this tree sit is that to have plans is absolutely silly. Because, the life-course as it flows, follows its own course, and I just had to hop on for the ride. So, there are no definite plans.

May 28, 1998:

As we have done every Tuesday for over half of her twenty four-week tree sit, let's check in with Julia Butterfly. Hello Julia! I tell you, 169 days is my count, does that sound about right? And you and I have been talking every week for over half of that time, that is pretty cool.

Yeah, it is amazing. I believe that I have actually, as far as speaking to one single individual, that you have been the person that I have spoken with the most.

You mentioned a web site that people could go to for more information, do you want to give out that address? 10 Sure, it is www.humboldt1.com/-lunanews.

I have to tell you Julia, that this is one of these bizarre circumstances where

I am talking to a woman, 180 feet up in a tree, and she is giving me a web address. I mean how wild is that?

It has been something that is really interesting to get used to and actually things like

the telephone, doing interviews and things like that and the pager going off continuously, have become such a norm, that I have actually gotten used to it. And,

other people think, boy that is weird, and it really is strange, but it is actually my

life. So it is very average for me.

(There are a few instances in which I have added a brief parenthetical explanation prior to Julia's words in order to set the scene or to provide my own

interpretation or analysis. For example, in the following conversation, Julia was

eerily prophetic, as she foresaw the tragic death of David Gypsy Chain that was to

occur the very next month.)

In Julia's words, on August 13, 1998:

In history, if we go back, people are only honored when they are dead. After things

have died, that is when their value increases and we need to change that perspective.

We need to understand how valuable things are alive. And that they are more

valuable alive than dead. What is happening out in the woods right now, people's

lives are in serious, serious danger. When you are using tools like chainsaws and 11 when you are cutting down trees and things like that, one small move and a person dies. That is very serious and we are talking about life and death and I think it is time that we stand together in love to celebrate life, instead of being angry and potentially bringing about death like we are seeing in the forests. God forbid if it takes someone's life.

Julia's statements in so many instances have the strength to stand alone, isolated from any context that I could provide. In these cases, I have found that no question from me is necessary to set the stage for understanding and interpretation of the words of a woman living in a tree.

In Julia's words, on December 29, 1998:

I've been up here since 1997, and it just seems like one long, continuous time. I tell people that time for me is like a river. One day it is slow and meandering, and the next it is rushing headfirst toward the ocean, but it's always one continuous flow, it's not segmented. The overwhelming sense of what I feel about this last year, though, is just a lot of love, and a lot of commitment from a lot of people. And I am seeing that now, and hearing that from around the world. I think that is what sticks with me the most about this year, is the amazing amount of love and commitment that comes forward in the face of such adversity. 12 January 26, 1999:

Prayer is what guided me to the Lost Coast. Prayer is what led me to this tree, up this tree. That prayer has given me the strength to continue all this time, and I know that this very same prayer is what will help guide me down. You know, my mother and I pray together on numerous occasions. The day that David Gypsy Chain was killed, as soon as I heard about it, I called my mother. She was the first person I called, and I said "Mom, I need you to pray with me, please." And she said

"Absolutely." So we stopped right then and there and prayed. I think prayer is really important, especially for activism, for people who are actively involved in whatever the things are that we're doing. Especially with the environmental activists, we get caught up in the politics and the science. There's a lot more to the picture than just those two things, and I believe that the heart, the true essence of the heart of true love and spirituality are vital parts of being a whole person.

June 22, 1999:

What I have found out up here is that the rest of my life is dedicated to being in service, to helping the greater self, which to me is all things. Part I: Methodology: An Application in Everyday Life

It's 1 o'clock on any Tuesday afternoon of the past year and a half. I am alone in the control room at KHSU radio, high atop the Theater Arts Building on the Humboldt State University campus. Thirty miles to the south, Julia Butterfly Hill is alone on a platform, high atop an ancient redwood tree on Pacific Lumber land. I pick up the receiver of the telephone on the wall and dial Julia's cell phone number.

After she answers, I patch the phone line through the on-air console and "pot up" the channel. We are ready to broadcast live to a potential audience of 120,000 public radio listeners in northern California and southern Oregon.

In this section I will discuss my methodological strategies and sociological imagination. I have used qualitative methods throughout the research.

Straus describes qualitative analysis as "used to discover how different patterns of social organization emerge from social interaction." (p. 57) That I am writing about a series of interactions (conversations) in which I also participate, adds another layer to the ongoing interpretation and analysis. I will also draw distinctions between the layers of understanding, from the live on-air radio broadcasts, through the audio tapes and subsequent transcription of the conversations, to this analysis. As can be seen in Figure 1, analysis does not stop with this thesis. It continues for each subsequent reader of this document. Please see figure 1 on the next page.

13 14 1. Live On-Air Radio "Conversations with Julia Butterfly" ->

-> 2. Audio Tape Recordings of the Conversations: the Julia Butterfly Tapes ->

-> 3. Written Transcripts of the Julia Butterfly Tapes ->

-> 4. This Thesis: "I have given up my society world self:"

Self and Other in the Julia Butterfly Tapes ->

-> 5. Others' interpretations of my work.

Figure 1

Figure 1 illustrates the various levels of interaction available for analysis based on the conversations. Listeners to the live broadcasts are able to hear all the sounds of the wind, the storms and the helicopters, in addition to hearing Julia's infectious laughter, all happening in the present moment. The audio tape recordings of the conversations provide the same elements of sound, but maintain a distance from the immediate action. The sounds are lost, of course, in the written transcripts, but a more detailed objective social analysis may be possible. This thesis work provides my interpretation and analysis of the conversations. While working from

the written transcripts, I still maintain knowledge of the live interaction, and my task

has been to incorporate meaning from both. And finally, I invite others to comment on or analyze my work. 15 I.1 In the Beginning

From the first moment I heard about this young woman who courageously occupies an ancient redwood tree, I have been interested in why she is doing so. I am also interested in a society that provides the support and technology necessary for her to communicate with the entire world from her perch high above the redwood forest.

I created an opportunity to present my particular personal interest in Julia

Butterfly within the structure of my regular weekly radio program. On March 5,

19982 for Women's History Month and to honor the late social justice activist, Judi

Bari on the first anniversary of her death from breast cancer, I talked with environmental activist Julia Butterfly. Julia and I both had plenty to say about Judi who was very involved in local forest and labor issues. We both admired Judi.

Neither of us had ever met her.

I prepared for the interview with Julia by listening to several archival recordings of Judi speaking at environmental rallies in the late 1980s. Her words were eerily prophetic of Julia's action as she continues Judi's dedication to preserving the old growth forest. I decided to include an excerpt of one of the recordings in the feature I was going to produce. I also spoke with Julia beforehand to get an idea of her style and temperament and to really just get to know her somewhat prior to our going live on-air.

On March 5, 1998, after airing the excerpt from Judi Bari, I introduced Julia.

"My guest this afternoon will be joining me by cell phone from her temporary home 16 180 feet up an ancient redwood. I especially wanted to talk with her today about a woman we both admire, the late Judi Bari. Judi Bari was a social justice activist, a mother, and finally an outspoken proponent of deep ecology as a revolutionary worldview. This week marks the one-year anniversary of Judi Bari's death from breast cancer on March 2, 1997. Joining me to remember Judi Bari is Julia

Butterfly. Hi Julia."

1.2 The Audience

In writing that introduction and throughout our interactions in all subsequent broadcasts, I consider my audience. I am cognizant of providing enough information for the uninformed listener to be able to participate, and yet that information also must be relevant and concise so as not to loose the informed listener. Sociologists have long struggled with the question, "To whom do we speak?" Is it to other academics or theoreticians, or do we speak to the very society we describe?

Broadcasters face a similar dilemma: "Who is the audience at this time? Who is listening to this broadcast?"

I consider the audience every time I am on air. I think about what they will hear when Julia and I talk. Issues relating to the environment and especially to the redwood forest elicit high community interest here in Humboldt County, where almost every night on the evening news there is some story related to the redwood forest. Our implicit priority to discuss urgent forest issues is critical to the ongoing success of our radio program. Our conversations frequently contain very technical 17 and scientific concepts. However, we consciously avoid the use of too much jargon so that we don't loose the audience. Julia and I both research forest issues and their ramifications so that we can keep our audience and ourselves up-to-date.

I have personally received many positive, warm, and heart-felt comments from audience members. "I feel like I'm in your living room," one woman said.

"You and Julia seem to be such good friends. I feel privileged to listen in to your conversation." And another listener told me, "I'm surprised you haven't met her, you sound like you know each other so well." From these comments and others like them, I understand that people are sharing a common bond with Julia and me, as we are establishing rapport. They are accurate when they interpret, through our conversational on-air accounts, our growing friendship.

1.3 Fieldwork

Over the time that Julia and I have had our weekly conversations, my role has unexpectedly evolved into that of ethnographer. In asking Julia pointed questions on specific issues, I construct meaning from her reality and we interpret it for the radio audience. Michael Agar describes ethnography as learning about a world one does not understand and making sense of it. (p.12) Harry Wolcott describes the ethnographic process as "real people doing and saying real things, seen through the eyes of another human observer. (p.49) For analytic purposes, ethnography sorts the simultaneous articulation of, and folk engagement with, meaningful realities. (Gubrium, p.23) 18 Dan Rose encourages ethnographers to rethink fieldwork "toward new forms of involvement. The idea of fieldwork demands not only critique, but reformulation based on new relationships that we can take up across boundaries." (p.17) He encourages us to open up to new methods of inquiry as well. While interviewing on the radio is as old as the medium itself, an evolving, lengthy publicly documented ethnography is on the cutting edge.

The sociological imagination can be cultivated, according to C. Wright

Mills, yet "it seldom occurs without a great deal of routine work." (p.211) Routine work for me has been the work of public radio: interviewing interesting people in the local community and talking about ideas of community importance. I enjoy the privilege of choosing my topics and guests. I tend towards topics and guests for which I have a personal affinity or interest.

Mills speaks of an essence of combining ideas that no one expected combinable and of the playfulness of such combining. In my role as producer/host of the program, I enjoy pushing the boundaries and offering provocative dimensions to everyday interviews. I believe that "everything in this world is connected," and so

I delight in combining ideas in a way to create that as a sense of reality listeners can think about.

My point of view is derived from the feminist, communitarian ethical model, which Denzin describes as based on an interactive approach to "community, self and inquiry in the cinematic, televisual age." (p.274) Denzin goes on to characterize 19 the system as one in which social change is taken to be the major goal. I consider the possibility that my work with Julia has the potential to elicit social change.

I. 4 Longitudinal Qualitative Interviews

I am the only person who, on a regular and routine basis, has documented

Julia's tree sit. This fieldwork began as a part of my everyday life and then took on an identity as this research, which is exempt from human subject's review. My role as radio host and interviewer is to ask concise, brief, open-ended questions of Julia to allow her as much of our allotted time as possible. Because I am familiar with my topic and my interviewee, I am relaxed and totally at ease. An easy, relaxed style can be heard in Julia's voice as well, although at times, a sense of urgency and emotion overwhelm our everyday conversation. She is eager to talk, and she is extremely eloquent in describing her point of view.

It wasn't always so easy for Julia. On March 17, 1998, when both Julia and I were new at our routine we had the following interaction during the first of our two recorded off-air conversations:

How does it feel to be a spokesperson for the forest so to speak?

Well it is really interesting. I have never been in the spotlight like this before. I didn't think I could do it when I came up here. I knew that something had to be done, bigger than what we were doing, which was just occupying this tree. I knew that something needed to happen. We needed to be reaching the people that could help change the atrocities that are occurring. Then I had heard when I was up here 20 that Woody Harralson, who is a big believer in what we are doing, had gone on

David Letterman and spoken about Headwaters. If someone famous just spoke about what is happening, then maybe we can kind of just surf the waves that he's created and get a couple of stories. I didn't realize at that point that I was going to be the one to do it. As different types of media and different types of interviewers come my way, it is helping me grow, as a spokesperson. It is very interesting and very terrifying at the same moment. Every single time I do an interview, I get the shakes. I mean I just get nervous every time I do an interview.

You're not shaking now, are you?

Now that I am speaking with you, and I have begun talking, my nerves have started to calm down. But the moments up to and then at the beginning of the interview, like when I just begin talking, until that flow begins to happen, my hands shake and my voice cracks, and if I was standing, my knees would be knocking. So, it is funny, but there are many performers that say that every time they get on stage, they have a case of the nerves.

Grant McCracken describes the longitudinal qualitative interview as taking us into the life world of the individual, to see the content and pattern of daily experience. He goes on to add that the long-form interview gives us the opportunity to step into the mind of another person, to see and experience the world as they do.

According to McCracken, I have been very lucky to have access to Julia for such an extended period of time. She and I have laughed repeatedly at her perpetual 21 availability for interaction. Whereas McCracken bemoans the fact that "few respondents are willing to sit for all the hours it takes to compete a portrait," (p.10) I have complete and open access to Julia any time of the day or night. She and I have laughed at the fact that I always know where to find her.

McCracken adds that few researchers, as well, have unlimited time at their disposal, and "time scarcity and concern for privacy stand as important impediments to the qualitative study of modern life." (p.11) Neither one of McCracken's impediments has been a problem for me. The "Conversations with Julia Butterfly" continue, even as I am writing this document. Any concern for privacy is taken care of by my off-air conversations with Julia prior to our program. Naturally there are a few topics, such as her personal negotiations with Pacific Lumber and matters of the heart, that we don't discuss on-air. But everything else is open to discussion.

An essential component of longitudinal qualitative interviews or postmodern ethnography is that of the "investigator as instrument." McCracken describes this as a useful concept "because it emphasizes that the investigator cannot fulfill qualitative research objectives without using a broad range of his or her own experience, imagination, and intellect." (p.18) I have found this concept so vital to my research as well as to my life. As an example, both Julia and I have faced life- threatening circumstances, which we have talked about on the radio. I believe that our sharing such a deep personal event has led the conversations in unexpected directions and has revealed much about both of us. 22 Harry Wolcott emphasizes that "the more critical the observer's role and subjective assessment, the more important to have that role and presence acknowledged in the reporting." (p.19) In addition to our having shared similar circumstances in terms of surviving life-threatening circumstances, Julia and I share a friendship and mutual admiration of each other that has grown over the time of our conversations. We talk about a wide range of everyday issues, in addition to discussing forest issues. In essence, it is through me and my questions and my interest in her as a person, that that we have gained such a broad understanding of the woman in the tree and essentially learned about the precarious condition of our redwood forests.

Through the process of "imaginative reconstruction," I have heard Julia's answers to my questions as true, in spite of the enormous leap of faith I gladly endure. I have never been out to Luna to see Julia, although through other media, I have seen pictures of her and her situation. It is not at all difficult for me to imagine her high atop an ancient redwood for more than six hundred days.

McCracken states that the objective of every piece of qualitative inquiry is to capture not just the particular but also the general properties of individuals in society, and that the inquiry should present the "characteristics of good intellectual craftsmanship." (p.52) My skills as an interviewer and as a sociologist have grown not only through my classes and research projects, but also through my years as a radio broadcaster. I have interviewed many people for the radio, and it is work that I am comfortable with and that I am skilled at. I really do enjoy talking with others. 23 Over the course of a long and productive life, author and radio interviewer,

Studs Terkel, has talked with thousands of individuals about a variety of topics including work and the American dream. He has found that the personal meanings individuals attach to these concepts have a powerful way of shaping their reality. He has also noted that interviewees' reflecting on their own personal condition would also "touch on the circumstances of their fellows." (p.xxiv) I have found that to be so true in my conversations with Julia. She speaks about many universal truths.

The radio interview and the technical equipment involved have long been favorite topics for Terkel to discuss with those interviewing him. Over the decades, he has spoken frequently about showing his subjects just a glimpse of his own humanness or frailty. He has mentioned that something as minor as his fiddling with his tape recorder and wondering aloud if it is working right has made numerous subjects relax. The fact that he is just a regular guy, just as they are regular folks, provides a shared reality or common bond. Terkel created a bond with his subjects, which he said led to them revealing some amazing personal information. That same bond exists between Julia and me, and that is one of the reasons, many people tell me, for the compelling nature of the program.

I have organized and re-organized my files to come up with the present manuscript. The incessant reorganization allowed me to be open to many unexpected possibilities, and so I owe much to C. Wright Mills for his encouragement to be creative, especially in re-organizing my files. In our postmodern world, with our incessant technology, not only are the conversations 24 recorded onto audiocassette, and in some cases mini-disc and reel tape, too, the transcripts are typed and organized into binders, and they exist on computer disc as well. My personal computer at home, another aspect of our postmodern technology- based world, has enabled me to "cut and paste" various segments of the conversations into a new order, without which, my job of editing would not have been so pleasant, or so thorough.

An unexpected result of the "Conversations with Julia Butterfly" is the narration her story provides for the entire and very complex ongoing forest saga.

Her own story describes the forest saga. The environmental fight to save the

Headwaters Forest and the aftermath of the Headwaters Deal are chronicled through the conversations. Indeed, within the "Conversations with Julia Butterfly" can be found a deep understanding of many of the people and the places that define this place, Humboldt County. In his book Cash Crop: An American Dream, Ray

Raphael writes a story about rural Humboldt county, but his players tell the story through their involvement in the local marijuana industry. "The real story asks real questions: What happens to people and place when they are transformed by unique and unforeseen events?" (p.4)

As Julia mentions from time to time, she never could have imagined this whole tree sit situation happening in her life. She is eloquent in telling of her authentic experience. Her experience relates as much about the world in which we all live, as it does about this woman living in a tree. 25 1.5 The Tapes of the Live Broadcasts

The Julia Butterfly Tapes are the archival recordings of a set of authentic accounts of lived experience: the live on-air conversations between Julia and me.

All, except for about four of the ongoing regular weekly interviews, were recorded and subsequently transcribed to the written page. In addition to the set of recordings of the live on-air conversations, there are two in-depth interviews that were conducted for use in a documentary and have been recorded and transcribed as well.

There is a vast increase in understanding that the listener to the live broadcasts or to the tapes gains, over the impact experienced by the reader of the transcripts. Julia and I are real people in real social contexts, with all the sounds of the wind ripping the tarps around, the thunderous assaults by the helicopters, and the sounds of Julia's hearty and infectious laughter, as well as the frustrating lapses in cell phone operation. The tapes are alive with sound and soul, the sounds of everyday life for a woman living in a tree. They provide a textural element that is sadly missing in the written transcripts.

Language is the main component in constructing reality, according to ethnomethodolgists, such as Harold Garfinkel. Interacting individuals' accounts of their actions provide the primary method by which the world is constructed in this way of thinking. Garfinkel's term "cultural colleagues" is such an apt description of

Julia and me within the recorded conversations. According to Garfinkel, Julia and I, as cultural colleagues, organize a set of indexical expressions and actions into

"ongoing achievements of (our) concerted commonplace activities." (p.10) 26 Although Julia essentially has had no personal face-to-face interaction with

society since she began her action in occupation of a redwood tree in a remote forest

owned by a timber company, she participates actively in society by the use of

language and technology, critical aspects of our industrial, postmodern world.

1.6 Self and Other in the Julia Butterfly Tapes

In organizing the data for this thesis, I carefully considered and reconsidered

a variety of topics under which to organize the edited account of our conversations.

This process enabled me to edit Julia's individual responses to my questions into a

more tightly cohesive document. Through reorganizing and lengthy editing

processes I have sharpened my intellectual craftsmanship and have created yet

another layer of contextual meaning from the original live radio conversations.

The forest saga, the progression of time and the seasons, and Julia's own

personal experiences can be followed through the chronology of our conversations. I

have gone to particular effort to edit as much of her rhetoric as possible, in order to

present a clear and concise portrait of the social world of a woman who is living in a

tree. The rhetoric is really of no interest to me. It is not of the heart.

The written transcripts of the tapes represent the third "layer" of meaning,

preceded by the actual live conversations and the tapes of the conversations. Denzin

describes a written text as a montage, a sort of "meeting place where 'original'

voices, their inscriptions (as transcribed texts), and the writer's interpretations come

together." (p.41) These texts have multiple uses, and Denzin notes six. I can relate 27 each use with my own research using the written texts of the "Conversations with

Julia Butterfly." The transcribed text records a particular time in the history of

Humboldt County when a young woman occupied an ancient redwood tree for longer than a year and a half. The text supplements the existing knowledge about this particular tree sitter, as well as tree sitters as a group, and the forest saga in general. Julia's perspective is unique in the world for her ability to communicate and the length of time she has occupied the tree. With that in mind, she offers a new way of looking at society.

That new way of looking at society comes as well from a minority voice.

Her position runs counter to the dominant legal and political paradigms. And yet many members of society support her continued efforts to be a voice for the forest, while performing an illegal act. Julia's friendly, articulate, conversational style is in sharp contrast to other forest activists who have joined us on the program. However, it is exciting to hear these other voices, knowing they speak the same truth.

In my edited analysis of the written transcripts, I have taken special care to present the material within the confines of proper grammar and punctuation. The listener to the tapes will hear broken sentences and rambling thoughts. While making the material as concise and grammatically correct as possible, the exact style of our every day speech is sometimes sacrificed.

The "Conversations with Julia Butterfly," and subsequently the Julia

Butterfly Tapes, relate Julia's firsthand accounts of her experiences in the real

world. Denzin speaks of the qualitative research text as a distinct form of cultural 28 representation, a genre in its own right (p.32) and that the researcher reproduces experiences that embody meanings and cultural understandings that operate in the

"real world." (p.33) Part of the intrigue of the conversations is that the conversations

are "serialized," much as television soap operas are, for example, and listeners tell

me they tune in each week to find out how Julia is doing and to also find out how

the forest is doing.

The purpose of my work has been to elicit Julia Butterfly's point of view,

not only on the forest saga of which she remains such a big part, but how she views

the rest of life, the rest of the world. In documenting Julia's time in Luna, I have felt

like we were on the cutting edge of social change. I applaud sociologist Roger

Straus who reports that as sociologists, "we use our research methods to help

powerless citizens in their struggle to maintain autonomy and independence in the

face of harm done to them by large-scale structures such as corporations." (p.68)

In Julia's words, on June 25, 1998:

When people say, "Julia, why are you going to such extremes? Why are you

trespassing," one of my first responses is, "I and others like myself would not have

to go through such extremes, if our government was enforcing laws that are already

in existence." One of the biggest problems that I see, in the research that I have been

doing, is that there is no governing body to keep reigns on the California

Department of Forestry. They pretty much get to act however they want, and they

are pretty much only answerable to the governor. And as anyone who has been 29 involved in this timber industry knows, the governor is hand in hand with the timber industry. And I am not against logging. I continue to tell people I am for sustainable forestry, because sustainable forestry does take care of the communities of people that I care about. But in turn, it also takes care of the forest, which we all need to survive. Governor Wilson is trying to railroad the Headwaters funding through in the budget. All of the people that are talking to him are telling him how what

Maxxam Corporation is doing here is truly and completely destroying the way of life for generations. Governor Wilson continues to turn a blind eye. So, if the

Governor doesn't care about the people, then of course, the Department of Forestry and the Corporation are not going to care.

In Julia's words, on May 11, 1999:

The outreach that we've been able to accomplish through this tree sitting, on this action of asking for some respect and love to enter our world again, especially in how we treat our forests and each other continues to be phenomenal. I spoke this morning to the World United Nations Commission on Human Settlements in

Nairobi, Africa. This commission is interested in how we provide adequate housing for people, adequate jobs, more focused on economic understanding, but with a desire to bring about a good quality of life for people around the world. And there's an amazing woman named Longari, whose been working specifically in Kenya, who tries to preserve what's left of the forest there, which is very little. She went in to plant trees and to try and restore an area that they had damaged and the police beat 30 her so bad that she had to have her spleen removed. Talking with her earlier today was a tremendous experience, with wonderful information exchanged as well as some empowerment because here, activists, when we take a stand, we get pepper sprayed, but there they get shot and killed. The fact that Longari is alive is a gift for us all, and so the joining together of the United Nations Commissions with activists is actually providing some safety for these people to protect their forests and their environment and their homes. Part II: Setting the Scene

The social milieu sets the scene in which individuals interact. In this section

I will present Julia's descriptions of her social milieu. The social milieu was described by Thomas and Znaniecki in The Polish Peasant in Europe and America as, "the family, the community or acquaintance milieu, the city, and the nation."

(Lemert, p.268) Even though Julia and I have never met each other face-to-face, the radio conversations produce the confluence of understanding between the larger society and Julia's individual life experience. "Neither the life of an individual nor the history of a society can be understood without understanding both." (Mills, p.3)

I.1 A Sense of Place

For ethnography, it is crucial to understand the larger, over-all physical and geographical context within which the conversations occur. Without this sense of place, I could well imagine the conversations taking place by any two women just about anywhere. It is particularly relevant, I believe, to hear Julia's definition and her understanding of our various local institutions.

I.1.a. Humboldt County

With a population of 130,000, rural Humboldt County is located on the coast of northern California, some 250 miles north of San Francisco. The Pacific Ocean to the west and a mountain range to the east provide a boundary that nestles the land,

31 32 the people and the giant trees in a sense of isolation, often referred to as the

"Redwood Curtain." Issues relating to the redwood forest and other issues involving the timber industry elicit high community interest.

The isolation of the countryside is especially conducive to illegal activities.

(Raphael, p.9) It is important to remember that Julia's tree sit is illegal, even though

she is supported by many local residents, just as the direct action in illegal marijuana farming is supported by many of the community. Illegal direct action continues to be supported by an area in which "the essence of rural anarchy, the

rugged individualism and frontier spirit which goes right to the heart of the mythic

American West" (Raphael, p.9) still flourishes.

Julia said, on June 29, 1999:

Humboldt County has really been a family to me and to this action. It has been

tremendously supportive on so many levels. People have helped make sure that I

have solar panels to run the batteries for the phone and make sure that there is food

for myself and the support team, and that I have clothing to keep me warm and dry,

which I didn't have the first winter around. So, it has definitely been a community

effort and the effort of many people has helped to keep me safe, too. It is that real

community togetherness and people trying to find ways to work together and to live

at peace and harmony with each other. 33 I.l.b The Pacific Lumber Company/Maxxam Corporation

The Pacific Lumber Company has been harvesting trees in Humboldt

County for 130 years. The Pacific Lumber Company, or Palco, is the largest private employer in Humboldt County. The company employs close to 1600 individuals and has an annual payroll of nearly $50 million. (www.palco.com)

In October of 1985 Maxxam Corporation Incorporated of Texas acquired the

Pacific Lumber Company in a leveraged buy-out. The harvest rate of Pacific

Lumber's old growth reserves was subsequently at least doubled to pay off a huge debt. (Times Standard) Since the Maxxam takeover, Pacific Lumber has been plagued by protests and legal controversies, including demands for no more cutting of ancient redwoods, as well as demands for protection of endangered species. The company has continued to argue that the demands are too stringent and that they have an obligation to its stockholders to make a profit.

In Julia's words, on March 27, 1998:

Pacific Lumber said recently about me that, "We are going to let her stay up there until she's tired and comes down." I've read accounts of Pacific Lumber, from every viewpoint, not just from environmentalists, because I really wanted to understand the real issues, and I didn't want my understanding to be tainted. I wanted to have as much of the truth as I possibly could. And from what I can understand, the old Pacific Lumber was a real company that recognized the value of the local communities, and did their best to work with the communities. Charles 34 Hurwitz and Maxxam Corporation are in Texas. He's behind a desk in Texas, and so the answers he gives have been, time and time again, from behind his desk, in his office of old-growth redwood. They say his office in Texas is lined with redwood trees. I don't know about the age of the trees, but it is lined with redwood trees.

February 9, 1999:

Well, I heard your tree has been condemned. What's going on?

Pacific Lumber posted public notices to the tree-sits in Freshwater and this area, and they posted that same public notice in the Times-Standard, saying that they are concerned for activists' safety and for employees' safety. The notices also stated what they've been saying about the tree sits all along, that it is an illegal activity.

The final statement says that if we do not leave we will be subject to arrest under the specific laws and codes of the land.

February 16, 1999:

Ultimately, if you look at it step by step, Charles Hurwitz doesn't really own Pacific

Lumber, the taxpayers who bailed him out for 1.6 billion dollars do.

May 18, 1999:

The environmentalists and the labor movement are coming together, specifically beginning with the United Steelworkers of America, because the Kaiser Aluminum employees are on strike against Maxxam. 35

I.l.c The Headwaters Forest Deal/The California Board of Forestry

In March of 1999, after years of controversy, the Pacific Lumber

Company/Maxxam Corporation sold the pristine Headwaters Forest to the state and federal government for $480 million. For over a decade the Pacific Lumber

Company and environmental groups and governmental agencies negotiated over the deal. The negotiations culminated on March 1, 1999. Many environmentalists have opposed the deal since the beginning. Environmental protests continue to this day.

May 21, 1998:

Julia can you help us understand a little bit better why you and other environmentalists don't want to just support the purchase of the Headwaters Forest now and say, "Wow we have got these trees, let's be thankful?"

It is very, very important, and I really appreciate you giving me the time to say that basically the Headwaters Deal is a death sentence. It is a death sentence for the forest here, it is a death sentence for the local economy, and it sets a precedent by the HCP, the Habitat Conservation Plan. That will be a death sentence for forests all across the country. The Habitat Conservation Plan, in effect, takes away our power to try and enforce the environmental laws that are already in existence. 36 June 8, 1999:

There were big rallies and festivities last year at this time, honoring your half-year tree sit. What about this year, is anything going on?

I really feel like at this point, what I want to do is turn that energy towards getting people to write, call, send faxes, e-mails, whatever people have as a means of communication, to Governor Davis. He has been dragging his heals for quite some time. He needs to select the full Board of Forestry and select some people who are going to look at forests as an entire picture, instead of just from the timber industry perspective, which seems to be what came from the past Board of Forestry. I call them the Board of Logging, because I don't see very many forestry decisions coming out of the old board.

June 15, 1999:

Even though the Headwaters agreement has passed, our issues are still here, and they need to be addressed.

I.I.d Luna/The Town of Stafford

Although Luna stands on Pacific Lumber Land, this ancient 180-foot tall redwood tree is not located within the Headwaters Forest, but is located above the mudslide that destroyed seven homes in the town of Stafford in December of 1996.

Julia continues her trespass on Pacific Lumber land in occupation of Luna. She claims that she will remain in the tree until she is certain the tree will not be logged. 37 John Campbell, CEO of Pacific Lumber Company, has assured her that, indeed, the tree will be logged as soon as she descends.

In Julia's words, on March 12, 1998:

This tree sit was founded and became a reality on a full moon.

And on April 30, 1998:

This tree is approximately two hundred feet tall, and she is over a thousand years old. I have to be very careful climbing toward the top, because her branches are very, very fragile. It is the part of the tree that has been exposed to all of the extreme weather, because Luna is on the top of the ridge. Some branches are dying, or are very, very fragile because of the cold and wind during the wintertime. So, that is something I have to be careful of. But I have become so one with this tree, and I speak to her as I climb, and she tells me which branches are safe and which ones are not. Part of that has been by my not wearing shoes, so that I can feel her underneath my feet and understand what she is telling me, through my feet and my hands.

June 11, 1998:

Is Luna the only tree in a clear-cut area?

No they didn't clear-cut. They did a pretty horrible job to the hillside, but they didn't clear-cut. If I come down, and they take even one more tree, it might be the tree that causes the hillside to slide away. This slope is very steep and very unstable. 38

January 5, 1999:

When are you coming down?

From the very beginning, my word was that I was not going to allow my feet to touch the ground again until I felt like I had really done everything I could to bring about awareness, and make a change. Ultimately Luna is still not protected. This hillside is not protected, and therefore the residents in the town of Stafford are still not protected.

11.2 Self and Family

The self is formed in interaction with others. There are as many selves as there are types of interactions, including political, community and familial selves.

In his work, The Self, the I and the Me, George Herbert Mead notes that it is the social process itself that is responsible for the appearance of the self, and that there is not a self apart from this type of experience. Therefore, what happens to any member of the family group directly of indirectly affects every other member.

II.2.a Family Stories

The self arises through social experiences, and usually the first set of those social experiences occurs within the family of origin. While there are many theories regarding socialization, all include the idea that "we tend to adopt the perspectives of those among whom we make our lives." (Straus, p.101) 39 Julia and I have spent a good deal of time talking about her family within the greater historical setting. She speaks of growing up poor in the rural South, always on the road to the next church, with her brother and parents. Her father was an evangelical preacher.

My family also is represented in this account. On several occasions, I was visiting my parents in Tennessee at the time Julia and I regularly have our conversations. On those occasions, we had a technical assistant at the KHSU studio,

I was in my parents' kitchen in Nashville, and Julia, of course, remained in Luna.

In addition to experiencing the deaths of four friends over the time Julia and

I have been speaking, my father also died. My mother called me very early on a

Sunday morning to tell me that sad news. After that call and making my plans to fly to Nashville that evening, the first person I called was Julia. It was early in the morning, and I figured she would be the only one of my friends (Although we still have never met, she and I have become very good friends.) who would be awake. I called her and received the most inspiring and heartfelt compassion from this woman whom I had never met. When Julia and I had our next regular Tuesday conversation, I had just returned from my father's funeral, and she had just completed a poem dedicated to my dad and me. She read it to me over the air, as I recalled one of the last conversations I had with my father was the night, a couple of weeks before he died, he called me and said, "You'll want to watch Dateline tonight. Your friend Julia will be on." 40 March 17,1998:

Do your parents know what you are doing now, living in a tree?

Yes they do.

Can you tell me how they feel?

My mother is a typical mother, and she is worried to death. But she is also a strong supporter, and she is actually rallying a lot of people behind our cause. She lives in

Florida, and she has gotten on the internet and has started spreading the news. My parents have both told me they are proud of the fact that I am standing up for what I believe in, and that of course is a great honor for me to know that they appreciate and respect what I am doing.

March 27, 1998:

My parents raised me to have convictions, and to stand behind them one hundred percent and to not back down in the face of adversity, unless I was proven wrong and then to back down gracefully. Yet they are parents, and they have been concerned about my safety. My mother is extremely, extremely religious and prays for me and asks God to take care of me every single day, and my father, he just knows that I am doing what I believe. He also knows that the universe will protect me. But they both have concerns being parents and caring about me. But I am really just following what they taught me during the time that I lived with them. There is a lot of opposition out in the world to what I am doing, people that don't understand that I am really doing an action out of love, and not out of fear or hate or anger. And 41 to have my parents' support is fantastic. Parental love is just an incredible aspect of love of the universe, as I am sure you know.

April 23, 1998:

(This was the first time Julia and I had our regular weekly conversation when I was not at the radio station. I was in Nashville, Tennessee visiting with my parents. I can vividly remember sitting in their kitchen, with them both in attendance and listening. It's too bad my parents could only hear my side of the phone conversation with Julia.)

Technology is amazing. I am sitting here in Nashville, on the phone in the

kitchen with my mom and dad, and having a great visit and I was remembering that

I hadn't seen them since last Thanksgiving. We are having a really fun time. When

was the last time you saw your parents?

I saw my father, I guess in September. I believe that was that the last time I saw

him, but I haven't seen my mother in about two years. We correspond in letters and occasional phone calls. Actually, in a radio interview that I was doing, not too long

ago, they called my mother up so we could talk on the radio together. It was quite

sweet, but it was really kind of difficult to talk with my mom when it has become an

audience thing, you know. So we just kind of talked about her involvement. She has

been a great supporter of what is going on out here. And she is a huge fan of the

redwood forests, and she has really gotten people involved in letter writing

campaigns and faxing and interne information and everything. So we kind of just 42 discussed with the interviewers a little bit about her involvement with what I am doing. Both my parents are incredibly supportive.

August 20, 1998:

Today I am sitting in my parents' kitchen. This is the second time that we have done this, me being in Nashville, and you being in the tree. It is amazing that I have been to Tennessee twice during the time you have been up in that tree. The last time I was here in Nashville, last April, and we talked, my parents and their neighbors became very interested in you and how you are doing. So this time when I came here, they all said, "Well, how is that woman in the tree doing?" What shall I tell them? How are you doing?

Doing really well. I am just as committed as ever to trying to help people understand this is a message about love and respect, and that all life, both human and non, deserves love and respect. Somewhere along the line, society as a whole has kind of veered away from that. In believing that we must have money to survive, we have forgotten that what we really need to survive is clean air and water and the balance of life. I am just as committed as ever, and it really gives me strength every day to wake up and know that I have another day to try and share that message with as many people as can hear me. 43 December 8, 1998:

There is a lot of important stuff going on now, not the least of which is folks honoring you for one year in the tree. What are your parents saying about this?

My parents have been supportive every step of the way. I am so blessed. My parents love me, and I appreciate their love beyond belief. Actually an interviewer got my mother's phone number again somehow and called her and was trying to get sensationalistic, human interest type stuff about me, which there is plenty of out there already, and my mom said, "You don't get it, do you? My daughter has stayed up in a tree, not for the fun of it, not because she is interested in talking about herself, but because what is happening out there is wrong and it must be stopped."

So that's the kind of family I have. They are supporting me one hundred percent.

May 4, 1999:

We are approaching Mothers Day, and I know that it has been a while since you have seen your mother. I am wondering if you could share some thoughts on your mom with us.

It had been awhile since I have seen my mother, even before I even climbed up in this tree. She lives in Florida. We are very close, though. Since getting this new kind of phone, where it is not a cell phone and it doesn't cost an arm and a leg and my first born child to pay the bill on it, my mother and I touch base about once a week.

She calls to make sure I am healthy, and I call to make sure she is healthy. I am one of many typical people, you know. But I was the rebel of the family. I know that is a 44 great shock. And I am blessed because my parents love me. I honor my parents to the highest, and I honor all parents who are doing their best in this crazy and chaotic world today to teach their children love and respect for all life.

Well Julia, on behalf of all parents and especially on behalf of all mothers, I thank you very much.

II.2.b Julia's Story

An understanding of the larger historical scene in terms of its meaning for the inner life and the external career of a variety of individuals is what C. Wright

Mills called the sociological imagination. (p.5) "Neither the life of an individual nor the history of a society can be understood without understanding both."(Mills, p.3)

Julia's unique experience as the daughter of an itinerant, evangelical preacher in the rural South, her new understanding following a near-fatal car accident, and her ongoing occupation of an ancient redwood tree intersect with her ability to communicate with society even though she is living in a tree.

March 5, 1998:

1 am wondering if you can share a bit of your story now, with our listeners.

What really got you up that tree?

The Great Spirits that guide this universe got me up this tree. When I first entered the redwood forest, I dropped to my knees and began to cry, because I was so overwhelmed by the knowledge and the spirituality and the beauty that was housed 45 in these forests, and I was completely overwhelmed. When I found out about what was happening to the last of the old growth, the last of these houses of so much knowledge and information of these hillsides and these forests, I knew I had to do something. I came to this area, to Humboldt County, to see what I could do, and one thing that they said I could do was help save this tree and come tree sit. So I came up this tree and spent six days. I went down on the ground for one, and then came back up for five, went back down on the ground for a while and then came up for this last tree sit. I have been through so many different things under the hands of

Pacific Lumber and under the hands of Mother Nature. But this tree and I have bonded, and she has continued to stand strong against the corrupt, corporate greed and the paid off politicians that are completely destroying the ecosystem here and the lives of the people in the area.

When we talked a couple of days ago, you talked about your own life in terms of a real scary experience, the car wreck, and that kind of leading into this spirituality. Can you share a little bit of that with our audience?

The wreck occurred on August the eighteenth, 1996. I was at a stop sign in a small

Civic ZRX car, and I was rear ended by a Ford Bronco. It completely took the back end of the car I was in and shoved it behind my seat and the steering wheel of the car lodged into my skull and caused brain damage. I lost my ability to talk and to walk and to function. All of the things that most of us take for granted were taken away from me. After almost a year of therapy, I was almost completely back to normal. At that point, because everything I had so taken for granted was almost 46 taken away, I realized that I needed to begin searching again for the real things and the important things in life. That spiritual path that I was searching for brought me to the redwoods and to these forests, and that is part of why I feel such an incredible link to what is happening here. I think that anyone who comes close to losing their life, or loosing their life as they know it, ends up going through a major change. For me, it was the realization that basically for a while there, it was uncertain whether I was ever going to be able to function in a normal way again. So, I would have still been alive, but not been able to function in all of the ways that I took for granted, like being able to walk and talk normally. When I made it through this change, I realized that basically I had been really living for the moment, and that I hadn't really been planning ahead. I hadn't been making sure that every moment that I existed was counting towards something more than just that single moment. And I realize now that had I not come through that accident the way that I did, I would have been very disappointed with my life, because it would have felt really empty.

That is what began my spiritual journey of trying to find where I was meant to be in this life and what I was meant to be doing, and that journey led me up this tree. You know, Geraldine, I could not have imagined this ever happening to me. I think every time in my life, when I have gotten comfortable with things and figured I have got it all under control, life sends me something else to prove to me that no, the universe is in control. And it is up to me to pay attention to the universe and follow the spirit guides that lead me. 47 April 16, 1998:

So, as you were going through the ordeal following your accident, were you kind of consciously saying to yourself, "If 1 get better I am going to be a different person?" Were you doing that?

I wasn't really making a conscious effort. I was changing with the event. As the event was unfolding, and as I was becoming a part of what was happening, I began changing just as a result. After it was all over with though, and I was completely better, that is, when I was released to go back to work if I wanted to or go do whatever I wanted to again, to lead my normal life. And that point is when I really made a conscious decision: I don't want to go back to the old way of things. I know that there is something more intense and more real and more important that I need to be doing with my life than what I have been doing up until this point.

June 11, 1998:

I want to say congratulations on your six months in Luna. Tell us about the rally out there and all the excitement yesterday.

Well, you know a lot of people kept asking me, you know, are you excited about six months? And I felt very strange with the focus on me. But, when I really thought about it, I realized what I was excited about. It is that, as each month passes, more and more people join in the fight to stop the destruction, to stop all that is destroying the environment and our lives. And that was extremely exciting. To see all these beautiful, beautiful people climb up the hill with all of their different percussion 48 instruments and their flutes, and play and just celebrate what we are working towards which is a beautiful and sustainable future for everyone. It was absolutely one of the most incredible days of my life. It was really windy and quite cold up here, but all of the love and commitment that I felt coming from people, wrapped me so warm just like a blanket. It was really, really wonderful.

I heard you were dancing on top of that tree.

Rumors spread like fire.

July 9, 1998:

It's funny, that as long as you have been up there, and you and I have talked,

I have always just called you Julia Butterfly. I know that you do have a last name,

Hill, but can you tell us how you chose the name butterfly? I think we have gone over this before, but what I want to do is lead into this great song by Kerrie

Wallace, and she sings with your whole name there.

Julia Loraine Hill was my given name at birth, which I have no problem with. I am

very honored by the name my parents and family chose to give me. I have never had

a problem with sharing that with people. Despite rumors that were listed in some

media, they said that I didn't want people to know my last name, which is just

ridiculous. I chose the name Butterfly, because I had an experience with a butterfly

when I was about seven years old. The butterfly landed on me and stayed with me

for hours in a hike in the mountains of Pennsylvania, and ever since then, I have had

incredible experiences with butterflies, both on a physical realm as well as in 49 dreams and visions. One of the most intense ones that ever came to me was a vision of a butterfly breaking free of the cocoon, but instead of the cocoon just being this brown thing that crumbled away, it was an incredibly, shimmering ribbon that unwound. The butterfly that immerged was very much a butterfly, and extremely prismatic in color, and just unbelievable. I cannot describe how beautiful it was. A saying came to me that said, "Through life's trials and hardships, we arise beautiful and free." That is the message of the butterfly: that only through the intense pressure and the letting go and allowing the fear to be laid away, can the butterfly emerge from that cocoon. It doesn't necessarily know it is having to leave something behind, but it breaks free of that chain of fear and just gives itself to the calling of the universe to do what it knows is right. In exchange it goes through a lot of pressure, a lot of trials and a lot of hardships, but what it results in is the incredible beautiful, magical butterfly that it becomes.

January 5, 1999:

Since the very beginning it's been day by day and prayer by prayer. Part III: A Case Study of a Woman Living in a Tree

I am privileged to provide this case study of Julia Butterfly Hill during a seventeen-month period of her historic tree sit. The qualitative data presented herein is the result of a series of live radio conversations that occurred between March

1998 and July 1999.

This case study provides a biography of Julia, in which she talks about growing up in Jonesboro, Arkansas and of her near-death experience; her epiphany at seeing the redwood forest was the result of that experience. She talks about the forest activists, who essentially provide Julia her only face-to-face interaction with society and who support her and her tree sit. These activists also risk their own lives to protect the forest they care so deeply about. Fellow tree sitter, Nate Madsen is one of the others who joined us in our live broadcasts. Nate's point of view as another tree sitter provides another point of departure for interpretation and analysis.

Over the time of our conversations I have been amazed at Julia's adept use of modern technology. Although she does not yet have internet access in Luna, she makes full use of a cell phone, a pager, and a radio. Her hand-cranked "people- powered" radio keeps her informed about goings on the rest of society, in the rest of the world. Based on world news that she hears over her little radio in the tree, she speaks of profound feelings and passions of an anti-war nature. Of course the

50 51 sensational aspect of a woman living in a tree has not escaped the mainstream media. Julia and I have had great fun and lots of laughs talking about her portrayal in such mainstream press as Good Housekeeping Magazine.

Mainstream media outreach is one of the goals of Julia's tree sit. Early on in the conversations she told me how she got started.

In Julia's words, on March 17, 1998:

So, through a series of events, I and one of the people that was up in the tree with me, you know decided that this is a media event. When they were chopping on the tree with an axe, all of these intense things were happening. The person that was with me said, "Julia we have got to do some media and let people know what is happening." So that was kind of my initial step.

III.1 Julia's Everyday Life

There are so many fascinating nuances to Julia's everyday life in a tree.

Weather, for instance, that affects the entire county, has an entirely other meaning in

Julia's life. Hail and snow, for instance, pile up inside of her living space. That is something most of the rest of us do not have to endure. But rainbows are still rainbows, and reaching out to others is still important, even though Julia claims to have "given up her society world self." It is important to keep in mind that these authentic interactions with Julia were initially broadcast live, without a script or rehearsal, before a potential radio audience of 120,000 listeners. 52 March 17, 1998:

First of all it was fun when you said, " Wait I have got people at the base of my tree.

I will call you back." What was going on?

Actually, there is a photographer and journalist from, actually from where you are calling me from, that are coming up the tree. I think they are from HSU.

They are on their way up the tree now? How does one get up the tree?

Well, we have a rope that is hung from about twenty to thirty feet below the platform, all the way down to the ground, where I raise it and lower it. I lower it to the ground and then our climbers climb just like rock climbers.

So you are totally in control of who comes up there.

Yes, of course. Actually what happened about six days before I came up here, the rope had gotten lowered at an inopportune time, because one of the girls that was sitting up here at the time was petrified, which I understand. The loggers down below were threatening to blow up the tree. It was so intense for her that she had to get down. She just couldn't take everything that was happening, including people at the base of the tree threatening to blow her up. When she got down, they got a hold of the rope and cut it, which made it very difficult for us. But, at the time we still had small trees attached to the trunk, that grow out of the trunk of Luna. To me they were her babies. We were using them to get up to a point where we could reach the rope and climb further, but then they cut those down too, so it was basically impossible to get up into the tree there for a while until we got a new rope. 53 Julia, now I would like to know, what's within reach right now of where you are talking to me? What is around you? What can you reach?

What I can reach are the things that are on my platform, including this phone, of course. I am working on a book of poetry and pictures inspired by Luna, and that is in reach. The kitchen, which is my single burner stove, my compost and my supplies are all within reach.

Can you tell us what kind of supplies? What do you have up there?

Well, food supplies, and I have water, of course, much of which has been gathered during the rain, off of my tarps. I have a little collection system. But some of that has had to be hiked up the hill, with this recent bout of dry weather we have had. I have lots of fruits and vegetables and grains. I am vegetarian, so as far as my food supplies goes, that is pretty much what is up here.

What else is around you? I want our listeners to get a real picture of you right now, how big is your platform?

My platform is six feet by eight feet. Then, on the other side of a major branch that goes through the middle is a four foot by eight foot piece that is what holds my supplies, including my extra water, my extra ropes and tarps, things of that nature.

The two platforms are separated by a hammock, for when there is more than one person up here. But it has become my library of information that is helping me gain knowledge about what I am speaking about. And as I am sitting here right now, I am sitting in the middle of my six foot by eight foot platform that is hung from the 54 branches of this tree just like a hammock. It is not nailed down or spiked into anything, it is just free swinging.

Do you have anything up there with you that reminds you of home, or down here on the ground? Any little trinket or thing like that?

Well, because of everything, I am a completely self contained unit, because that was my plan on coming out here. I had everything I owned in a backpack. So, I brought all of that up the tree with me. I have a few pictures of friends, and since coming up here I have actually received letters from friends, along with little gifts that they send, little oddities, like this little puffball pipe cleaner with cellophane wings. It's a bee, and that was sent to me. Those are the only things that are reminders of home that I have. My memories are stronger than anything else.

Okay, well look out around you, and tell me what you see.

I see everything we are fighting for and everything we are fighting against in one fell swoop. Far off in the distance are some forests that are still pristine and the

Headwaters area. To the left of me, as I sit facing out, so to the northwest of me, there is the mudslide that destroyed the seven homes in Stafford. So there is this big gaping river of mud carved out of the hillside directly left of me. Then directly in front of me, are some beautiful trees, and then right in the middle of all that, are these burnt out carcasses of hillsides where they have come in and then clear-cut.

Also to the left of me is Pacific Lumber, the mill, which is the epitome of where all of this is occurring. 55 Can you see the mill and the town of Scotia where Pacific Lumber is?

Well, Scotia actually is around the bend. You can kind of see the tip of Scotia from where I sit, but then the road bends around the mountain ridge there, and that is where Scotia lies.

Can you see the highway 101?

Yes I can see parts of highway 101. It is really kind of interesting, when the fog lays low, it is really fun because it turns everything into just light. You can't see the horrible mill. You can't see the clear-cut. You can't see anything but the fog and the light. And in the evening when the cars are coming down the highway, it looks like they are floating in the air. It is really kind of a neat effect.

Those people that you had to deal with before we talked, are they on their

way up the tree now?

Actually they are not. They are waiting for me to lower some ropes and stuff. They

didn't bring all of the equipment they needed to bring, so I have to lower some stuff

to them. I warned them about that when I went down. I told them, " Hey look, I

have an interview that needs to be done before two o'clock, so you guys are going

to have to just enjoy the beautiful day."

How did they get out there to where you are?

Part of my incredible ground support crew, what they do, now that the media has

become an issue, is that they hike the media out to the tree. They teach them how to

climb and all of those different things. So one of my incredible ground support

brothers has hiked them up the hill to the tree and is going to help them get up here. 56 How far a hike in is it?

It depends on how far you can sneak in. There are different drop off points on this hillside, and certain ones facilitate you farther up the trail then others, or up the mountain than others. It is approximately three miles up, from the base of the hill, and it takes anywhere from an hour to two and a half hours to get to the top, and that is at a nice steady pace. Then, it is one hundred and eighty feet up into the air.

March 26, 1998:

Let me ask you this, so many times I've told people that I do talk with you and lots of people have questions, of more or less a personal nature. The one that comes to mind especially is, people say, "Okay so she doesn't have a bathroom up there in her tree, just how the heck does she deal with waste?"

After my first sit up here, I realized that this tree sit wasn't necessarily geared for women, so I designed a funnel with a hose, and there is also a bucket that utilizes the other aspect of the bathroom. The waste gets stored in a cave, and I also have a great ground support crew that takes my compost and my trash out, the little of it that there is. They pack it out for me.

April 2, 1998:

Tell us about what happened to you yesterday, on April Fool's Day.

Well, actually, the wind decided to play an April Fool's trick on me. I was lowering a pack of reporter's equipment down onto the ground, when all of a sudden it 57 couldn't go any lower. It turned out that the wind had taken a supply line and blown it not only over a branch, but somehow managed to tie itself into a knot on a branch which I couldn't just free-climb down to and untie. So it took me about an hour to pull the pack back up onto the platform, attach it to my back, and free climb down

to the climbing line, about twenty or thirty feet below the platform. Then I had to pull the climbing rope up, attach the pack to the climbing rope, and lower it down to

the ground. So that was quite an interesting ordeal!

April 9, 1998:

Julia, we have got kind of a noisy connection today, is everything blowing

around out there?

Yeah, I am actually in kind of high wind right now. It might make it kind of fade in

and out a little bit. When it gets really windy like this, it is very similar to being on a ship at sea in a storm. Except that my ship is a platform, hanging by ropes from the

limbs of a tree. It kind of sways and rocks and moves around, and when it gets

really windy up here, then you throw a bucking bronco into the mix and that is what

is like. But right now we are more just like the ship rolling around in the sky.

What you do about exercise, if you can even still use your legs?

I climb so much that I am constantly stretching my body and as far as trying to keep

the strength, I do things like squatting on limbs, that other people would do in a gym

or something. I just do them on limbs. I do push-ups and sit-ups, just to try to 58 maintain some physical strength. My upper body is extremely strong, but, for my legs, the most that I can do is just climb and do bending and things on the tree.

July 9, 1998:

I know that you got speak to the Board of Forestry, and we heard it all on the radio. How was that for you?

Well it was definitely amazing, and it was another step in this action that I never could have foreseen my being a part of. I thanked them for allowing me to be there by phone, because I could not be there in person, and I explained the reason why I could not be there in person. I went on to tell them that this morning I woke up to incredible beauty. The valleys below were covered in fog that was glistening gold from the sun, and above me was blue sky as far as I could see. But as the sun began to disperse the mist, the true reality of the valleys below came forth. I talked about the mudslides and the muddy creek and the clear-cuts and all of these things. And I said, "I urge you to look beneath the blanket of fog of manipulation and lies that people are sending your way, and to see the truth that is staring us straight in the face. What is happening here is destruction not only to the environment, but to the quality of people's lives. We need your help. Please do not ignore us. Please do not turn away. Please do not allow the fog of manipulation to cloud your vision to what we all know to be true."

They must have been impressed talking to a woman up in a tree. 59 No, they didn't seem impressed by anyone. They had a lot of people to listen to. I greatly appreciated the fact that they allowed people to have a chance to talk.

August 6, 1998:

It's time to check in with Julia Butterfly on day 239 of her tree sit. Hi Julia.

Hello Geraldine. It makes me laugh every time I talk to you because it is the one time I hear what day I am on. I remember back to when I was on about day seventy something, and people had found out that the world record was ninety days. A photographer was up here and said, "Julia you have just got to stay for a hundred days," and I just laughed hysterically, and I said, "There is absolutely no way I can make it a hundred days."

And it makes you laugh now to think that you even said that.

I know. And now it is amazing how every step of the way up here, when I have thought I can't do another day, I can't make it through another obstacle, I can't do it any more, the universe always sends me the strength that I need to make it through.

Then it sends me just a little bit more, to make me even stronger.

I know that some of that strength comes from getting a lot of mail. Can you tell us about your mail? Who writes to you?

I get letters, and I respond to about one hundred letters a week. I have heard from people from all over the world. I think the youngest one who has drawn me a picture was three years old, so I'd say that I have heard from people from age three, all the way to age 83 and from all different walks of life. I get letters from people who are 60 inspired by this action. I get letters from people who want to know more, because

they are being informed by this action. I get letters from people who want to

understand why I feel so compelled to go through such lengths. I get the whole

range of letters. It is really incredible to continue reaching out to everyone I possibly

can and helping them understand how we can all work together to make our planet a

beautiful home for everyone and everything.

Well I am just wondering, if somebody listening to us right now would like to

write to you, can you give out that address?

Sure, my post office box where I can receive mail and eventually it makes it up to

me, is P.O. Box 1265 and that is in Eureka, and the zip is 95502. I respond to every

single person that writes me with a return address, because I feel we are all

connected, and I want people to understand that I think everyone is important, even

people that don't necessarily agree with my action. I want people to understand that

this is not a publicity stunt for me. This is about reaching out and connecting with

people, and it just so happens that media is the only way I can do that. I can be at the

top of the tree, screaming at the top of my lungs, and probably run some birds off,

and that would be about all I could accomplish. So I just really feel that I want

people to understand that I truly do love people and I truly do love our planet and I

want us all to be able to come together in that love to have a beautiful future.

September 8, 1998:

I know you are coming up on a big anniversary. 61 Nine months. You know, there's been this rumor amongst the many that I am pregnant, and so I figure if that's the case any day now I'll be giving birth to baby redwood trees!

September 15, 1998:

How are you doing today?

I am doing great. It is a fantastic day up here. I can look out and see that you all are under fog, but I am blessed to be watching it roll below. I am in a glorious day here.

Lucky you. We are in it here. Hey listen, I have talked to a couple of friends of mine who actually took a trek out to see you on Sunday. I am not sure how much you could see them, but they could see you dancing on the branches. They were in awe of actually seeing where you are. It is something I haven't done.

It is a magical experience, I think, for anyone that comes. You have to hike though.

Part of the way is hiking up through the mudslide. So, you can see, kind of what they have done through this area and then you look up to the very top and in a proud symbol of love and life stands Luna. It's just amazing.

So my friends who came out there were saying to me, " She was up there on the top branch, dancing" and I go, "Yeah, I have heard that before."

Well, it is my most favorite place in the world to go. It is like being connected with the power of the earth and the sky all at once. That is where the balance is. It is like the yin and the yang, the male energy and the female energy that all life needs to 62 stay in balance. When I go to the very tippy top, I can feel both energies flowing through me, and it is so amazing, and I love sharing that with people.

What are some of the things those folks brought out there to you on Sunday?

Lots of mail, a couple of pounds worth. They brought me fresh fruits and vegetables, which are always a pleasure. It is so fun to feel that beautiful life energy that is in live fruits and vegetables. They also brought some tea, because that is my passion, my one little security blanket if you want to call it that, is tea. Some dried goods, bulk goods, some to last for a long time, the kind of things that get stored

away for when I am out of fresh fruits and vegetables and need something to eat.

This time I was having a craving for peanuts. I got some peanuts and that was my

little splurge. Then they brought me some great things to tie some hemp necklaces

with so I could do some fun creative things with a little bit of spare time, although

with sixty letters to write, it is going to be a bit of time before I have some spare

time again.

It is still so funny for me to think about you up there, so busy. You know, we

would normally think that you have got all of the spare time in the world, just sitting

in a tree, but, I know that is not true.

Yeah, I am still doing two to four interviews a day, thanks a lot to the Mainstream

Media Project. Then writing the letters, that takes a lot of my time. Yesterday, I

believe it began at 5:30 in the morning with an interview. I had a 5:30, an 8:30, a

9:30 and a 3:00. 63 Well Julia, thank you so much for being with us today as you are every week.

I look forward to talking with you next Tuesday.

And I do as well. I just want to tell people to celebrate life, because we are all a part of a magical creation and every moment is blessed. Thanks for sharing a moment with me.

Thanks for sharing it with us, Julia.

October 13, 1998:

Joining us from high atop an ancient redwood tree for 307 days, here is

Julia Butterfly, What's it like up there today?

It is magnificent right now, because it's lightly raining, and all of Stafford Valley down below is being blessed with this gorgeous rainbow that is arching from one end of it to the other. Rainbows are so amazing. I remember back last winter when I was caught in this massive hailstorm, and it kept blowing hail in and then it would disappear for a minute and the sun would pop out and there would be a rainbow.

Then the wind would come and blow in the next bought of hail, and it was all day even, and I saw somewhere between twelve and fourteen rainbows, in just one day.

It was unbelievable. I think it was the universe sending me something beautiful to hold onto in the midst of getting pummeled by hail.

November 17, 1998:

I bet it has been rainy up there. 64 Yes it is. It's funny, though because I love the rain, and I love seeing fog, because I know that means we still have some intact forests going on. These incredible ancient redwood forests are part of the rain forest, so they thrive on this kind of weather, and when they are thriving I feel like I'm thriving too.

December 1, 1998:

I was listening back to some of the tapes that you and I did of this program back in March, and I was amazed at day one-oh-six, that you were still up there!

It is funny, because I remember when somebody suggested that I make it a hundred days up here, I just thought there was no way I could do that, and now here I am, two hundred and something days past that day.

That's right, and coming up on that anniversary. I've got to know, what's the most challenging part about spending a year in a tree?

Well, I think it would be different if I were just one year in a tree out in the middle of the forest, you know, that wasn't attack, in the middle of such a heated issue, like this area here is. So I imagine if it was more of a tree sit like they've been in the past, where you are kind of out in the forest, out being with nature, it would be one thing. But I think that with a tree sit like this, the hardest thing is that I have to work on every level, spiritual, mental, emotional, and physical all the time, all at once.

Yesterday and the day before I was in seventy mile-an-hour winds up here, and I was just being blown all over the place, while doing an interview at four fifty in the 65 morning. So it is really interesting because I have to do so many different things on so many different levels all at once.

When I hear about these big winds, I want to know, are you literally hanging on, are you strapped on? How are you?

No, I never did strap on. I have never liked being confined to man-made things. I would rather trust Luna and be able to move quickly. When you are strapped in, you have to stay strapped to a branch, and when you live in a tree the scary part is when the branch breaks, and if you happen to be attached to the wrong branch, then you have a problem. Last winter, four massive branches ripped off from around me.

There was one from up above that fell and collapsed half of my fort. This time around it is better for me because I like to move around and move quickly, so that when a branch comes crashing down, I can get out of the way.

And you are laughing!

Well, because laughter is the best medicine. It is very freeing to just laugh, to learn to just let go and know that life is going to send all kinds of things our way. And the best way to make it through them is to just let go and be like the wind and the trees and let it blow and let it flow.

December 15, 1998:

Well, you have been there more than a year now.

I know. The other day someone said, "Julia you realize now we are talking to you on the first day of your second year." And I said "Yes, but it doesn't feel that way." 66 I know that at the rally on Saturday you received an honorary doctorate.

That's pretty awesome.

It is quite an honor. I really receive it on behalf of all the people who have enabled this message of what I have learned up here to reach the world. It is not about me.

They are hearing what I have learned. They are hearing what creation has shared with me and they are hearing it because of a lot of other people's amazing work.

January 5, 1999:

I know that you've been up since four this morning being interviewed. What are some of the questions that people from other places are asking you?

Well there are always the usual questions about how I live in a tree. I've learned, as soon as they ask me any question about "how," I give them all the answers to all the usual questions. So then they can't take up the whole rest of the show asking my how I eat, how do I live, et cetera. So now it's time to talk about "why." A lot of times they will say "Isn't this private property?" And I'll say "Yes, but private property shouldn't be about destruction of our shared environment. It should be about protection of our shared environment."

February 2, 1999:

How are things up there today?

Well, they're a bit noisy. The Columbia helicopter is back, pulling off the rest of what they call slash, which is actually broken forest. They're clearing it off the 67 hillside, and right now they're dropping it off on the landing, and they'll be back around for another loop here in a second. It might get a little noisy.

I can hear it. If we're hearing it this well, over all these miles, through your little cell-phone, I can't imagine how noisy it is for you up there, and nerve-wracking.

Well, it really is. Last year, it was weeks of solid day after day of literally sounding like a war-zone. Often times it sounds literally like machine guns are just firing for hours and hours every day. About every two hours they go to refuel, and there's a blissful moment of peace, and then before you know it, you hear the blades off in the distance, and then I batten down the hatches, and get ready for another round. I believe three, maybe four helicopters are in the area right now. And here comes one again. What it's doing right now is lowering cables to the ground. There's a ground crew down there, men wearing these really bright orange colored clothing so that the helicopter can see them, and they take the chains, and they attach it to the trees that were cut down to form a bed. More often than not, especially on steep slopes, they'll make a bed of fallen trees so that old growth won't shatter when it hits the ground. And right now they're pulling all of those trees off that were broken and smashed when the old growth was crashing into the ground, and they are pulling off

trees, some of which were literally ripped out of the ground by the helicopter. I've seen them just keel over and break, because the helicopter blades have

approximately three hundred-mile an hour updrafts that create a lot of stress on the

trees. They've already been slightly stressed or injured from other trees crashing in 68 to them, so they are very weak, and with the updraft of the helicopter, they just tip over. And so now it's just pulling all of those off and sometimes it'll pull six or seven trees off at a time, into a great big pile.

It's almost too loud to hear you.

Yeah, it's really loud at this point. I can barely hear what you're saying. I have one finger stuck in my ear, and the phone pressed tight against the other.

And you're sitting two hundred feet up in an ancient redwood tree with helicopters swirling around you're head, that's quite an image.

Yeah it is. They say they do it because its a more gentle form of logging, but from what I've seen and what I've witnessed there's nothing gentle at all about using helicopters to rip trees off steep hillsides.

February 9, 1999:

Sounds like a blizzard up there!

It has been amazing since yesterday evening, storm-front after storm-front of sleet and hail and snow, and I'm terrible with guessing distance, but probably down to about the thousand-foot level, everything is just a winter snow and ice wonderland.

Last week it was the helicopters, this week it's the blizzard.

It's just reminding me of what it was like last year when I first came up. There were the helicopters, there was the security blockade, and there was the chopping down of the trees all around me. Then there were the ninety-mile an hour winds and el 69 Nino's last fling. So it's almost like the same thing, but this time around we are getting a lot more cold weather and a lot more snow and ice.

What you are doing to keep warm. What is your platform like right now?

Well, my platform, on the inside, looks like the outside, because the wind has been blowing really hard. It blew snow and ice into everything on the inside as well. So actually today I've been spending my time sorting through stuff, trying to dry out newsletters and things I use for research and to read up on what's happening, not only here but in the movement across the country and around the world. And I am trying to get things stored away so that I can try and keep it semi-dry, and for myself, I just pile on the layers and add a lot of laughter. Laughter seems to keep me warm as well. But I'm wearing two pairs of socks, and a pair of booties, two thermal pants and a pair of wool pants, then a pair of ski pants over that, two thermal shirts, a wool sweater, two wind-blocker jackets, a rain coat, gloves, and two hats.

And I'm sitting here on a university campus, in a nice warm building, next to a nice warm, large library, where most of us do our research. So it strikes me as peculiar that you're sitting up there, and you're working away.

I've lived up here so long, that it's not like I ever don't remember that I live in a tree. I constantly have to be aware. The different sensory perceptions in my being have become so finely tuned, because you have to really pay attention and live in a totally different way when you live in a tree. But the concept of my living in a tree doesn't really hammer home too often with me, because I've been up here so long 70 it's just kind of like, this is my life. But when it's snowing and hailing, and the hail is bouncing inside, and the snow is blowing inside, it kind of is like, "Oh, yeah, I live in a tree!"

Julia, this is continuing to be an amazing saga, wouldn't you say?

Absolutely! You know that's life though. If it were any other way we might get bored! And I just continue to think that everything that comes my way, whether it be helicopters, public notices, or blizzards, I offer it all in prayer and ask for guidance and strength, just as I've been doing since day one.

February 16, 1999:

I have on a barrage of layers against the cold. I'm getting close to being about as wide as I am tall, but it helps keep me warm.

Let all our listeners know how busy you've been this morning.

It has been a whirlwind that began at seven o'clock in the morning with an interview with KPFA. After that, I spoke with a Danish magazine. And I also spoke at a wonderful rally with the steelworkers, the unions, and the environmentalists all coming together in Houston, Texas. In between there were two or three other interviews, one from Tennessee, and I forget what the other one was. It was one right after the other after the other, so it was a pretty amazing whirlwind.

And you're sitting up there, two hundred feet, as wide as you are tall, and that's all a pretty phenomenal concept! 71 It really is you know! It still kind of astounds me, sometimes, on days like today how much we have been able to be effective from this one spot. Of course it's taken an amazing amount of work on a lot of people's parts. And through the help of media such as yourself, it has given a voice for the issues to be heard and for me to be able to talk about things, and that it has reached as far as it has.

Julia, after almost a year of talking with you, we do have a lot of faithful listeners that tune in for this conversation every week. One careful listener has commented that she has never heard me, you know we have talked about Christmas and happy New Year, and yet I've never said "Happy birthday" to you in almost a year. Julia, happy birthday! This will be your second birthday in Luna.

Yes, it was funny on my last birthday. It began at six o'clock in the morning with an interview and ended at about nine-thirty at night with an interview. So it was just a typical day. But actually my birthday last year is what helped break the Redwood

Curtain, as they call it, that barrier that doesn't let the information get out. For some reason that was the hook and the angle that the media wanted, to get them to start paying attention, and so this time around there aren't quite as many interviews, and they're not as early, so I'm hoping to maybe get a little sleep this time around.

April 6, 1999:

Is it a beautiful day up there? It is here in town. 72 It really is wonderful. The breeze up here always has a little nip to it, but the sun has been shining, and just two days ago it was snowing and hailing, and now there is no rain, no snow, no hail, so today is a good day.

You know, Julia, over the more than a year that you and I have had these weekly conversations, we have really covered a lot of ground and talked about a lot of issues, in addition to the environmental issues that you speak so strongly about. I just have to say today that I am saddened once again, since I have lost another friend to breast cancer. And what I am looking for are some inspirational words from you, or something you can say. You always help me get through these things.

I first have to say how shocking it is to me how much cancer there is in our world today, and especially in this area, where so many people live such healthy life styles, and yet cancer is on the rise, breast cancer especially, but other cancers as well. It is a shock and a shame that we are losing our loved ones from the poisons that are being legally dumped into our environment that effects us all, it doesn't just effect somebody's backyard. I am so sorry for the loss of your friend.

April 13, 1999:

What a gorgeous day this is.

It is. All of my senses are dancing today.

There's a bunch of rumors running around again about you, so I thought we might take this moment to clear some things up. Are you pregnant?

The one rumor that refuses to die is the one that I'm pregnant. I don't know why 73 that one seems to be the favorite. I even got a phone call from a woman who is a midwife, and she and other midwives got extremely excited because they heard I was pregnant, and they all wanted to come up and help me. Of course there's always the rumors that I'm coming down for this or that. There have been rumors that I'm coming down for Earth Day, for Mother's Day, for May Day. I think what it is as I mentioned to you before is that a lot of people are ready to see me come down. And so these rumors of my coming down are becoming more and more prevalent in hopes that they'll push that into a reality.

Any other rumors you want to dispel right now?

I think that's it. Those are the ones I know of anyway. I'm sure there's a lot more out there that I'm not even aware of.

There were a lot of steelworkers on the North Coast this past weekend, and I know some of the steelworkers even came out to visit you. That must have been an interesting experience.

Oh yeah. They've been coming from all over the country. The United Steelworkers of America have thousands of members from across the country and they've had various ones hiking up to say hello, and one of the leaders hiked up, and came into the tree, actually. He came up on the morning of Sunday's forum, and we barely had time to get him up in the tree and talk to him for a few minutes before we had to get him back down, and they had to make a speedy direction back to the forum. And with the amount of time they had when they left here, I have an image that he went skidding into the forum at a dead run and kind of slid behind the microphone, 74 covered in dirt from hiking up the muddy hill and climbing up into the tree. But I know that it was an experience that he will never forget, and neither will I. It was really wonderful because he came up just to say that he was really excited about the coming together of the steelworkers with the environmentalists. That it's something our society has needed for a long time. And he feels really happy and hopeful to be a part of this. It was really just a wonderful experience.

April 27, 1999:

Julia, this is the five hundred and fifth day that you have sat in that tree.

Yes, every time I reach a new hundred mark, I reminisce about the first one hundred days and how impossible that seemed, and now it seems like each one hundred-day mark just comes back around before I realize that it is here.

What is different after five hundred days now than the first couple hundred?

Well the first hundred days were really hard for me, because Pacific Lumber was trying their various tactics to get me down, and Mother Nature was reacting to the disrespect we are doing to the earth, including our deforestation. So, in between those two things, and not having enough gear to stay dry and warm, it was really, really hard. It's funny, you know, people all the time are talking about when I come down, how much I am going to have to get used to, and how I am going to have to acclimatize, or get accustomed to being in the world down there again. They always make it such a big deal, because everyone only knows me in the context of being up in the tree. They don't realize that I did live on the ground at one time. I had to get 75 accustomed to living in the tree, which wasn't necessarily natural, and I had to let go of my attachments to unnatural things, like man made heating and air conditioning and things like that. So for the first few months I had to get used to living in a tree. After that first one hundred days, it seems like things just became more natural for me, the way it is supposed to be, living as one with nature, with the elements and just becoming one with this tree and this experience.

May 4, 1999:

The rumors are starting to fly again that you are ready to come down.

Well, it is that time again. The rumors seem to be on a seasonal rotation, and I think part of it is that people are concerned, and they are worried about my health after having lived in a tree for so long. I am really blessed to have the help of some people who are getting involved now, to look toward the future and to make sure

that when the time comes, we will be ready. But it is not right now. I am not coming down now. This area is still not protected. I still feel that there is more work for me

to do up here.

I heard a couple of weeks ago that you had some famous guests visit you,

and you and I haven't even had a chance to talk about that on the radio yet.

I was very blessed and honored with a visit from Bonnie Raitt and Joan Baez, two

beautiful, powerful and wonderful women. It was such an honor for me because I

respect them so greatly for who they are as people, and that they have integrated

their creativity and their passion and their activism into themselves. They utilize all 76 aspects of themselves for what they believe in, and I just really honor that and respect that in them. So an activist had a pulley system in the tree, and with the help of the tremendous steelworkers, and the great big muscles of the steelworkers, we hauled the two women into the tree. So, they didn't have to climb. You know their hands are their lives and climbing into the tree requires a lot of arm and hand strength. So with all of us being concerned about the hands of these great artists, they got a human, mankind elevator ride, right up into the tree.

You know the picture you are painting for me is great: Huge steelworkers lifting Joan Baez and Bonnie Raitt almost literally up into the tree.

It was great. It was a pulley system with a huge rope and I think there was about six to eight steelworkers, and they are all at one end of the line and then here is this famous musician attached to the other. And then with a heave and a ho, up they fly.

It was quite a day. There was lots of laughter amongst all kinds of people. There was a pretty big group that came with those two women. I think it was a really great day for everyone involved, a lot of love, a lot of joy and a lot of celebration, which is so nice. Working to defend the earth that is ourselves and is our home can be very difficult sometimes because we are seeing so much of it destroyed day in and day out. So, it is wonderful to come together and have laughter and celebration.

I certainly hope they sang to you when they got all the way up there.

They did! They sang a capella, two songs from their earlier days of activism. Their voices are so powerful that they didn't even need accompaniment. Their voices were beautiful. 77

May 11, 1999:

Julia, I continue to meet people who ask me, "Is she still up in that tree?"

Yeah, just about everyday I get at least one phone call asking me, "Are you still up in the tree?" Yes!

May 18, 1999:

Hi, how's things in your world today?

Well, they are a little gray and overcast, but it's so nice to be not getting pummeled with the wind. That's always a blessing, because it tends to be 99 percent of the time windy up here, so that one percent is a joy to be sure.

In Julia's words, on June 22, 1999:

I think nature decided to go ahead and shine a little summer onto this area. It is the first time I have seen the sun in about a week or two, so it is really wonderful. I have a blue sky, which is a tremendous gift. You never really think about how magical something as simple as a blue sky can be, until you don't see it for a while. It was funny yesterday morning when I was doing an interview, and the person was asking,

"Don't the longer days of summer help you, Julia?" I said, "Yeah, I don't have to use candles as much." But it pretty much just gives me a longer period of light and less time of dark gray. Someone else said, "Well how many seasons have you gone through up there, Julia?" I said, "Two, wet and dry." 78 111.2 Forest Activists

Forest activists are prepared to put their lives on the line in defense of the

Earth (Bari, p.90). The forest activists who are Julia's ground support crew are also

her face-to-face link to society. Over the course of our conversations, I have had the

opportunity to meet several members of Julia's support team, as well as other forest

activists. I have still not met Julia. However, these activists are the individuals who

do see her and interact face-to-face with her. They provide her a vital link with

society, and she continues to honor their courage and efforts.

The forest activists I have met are passionate about protecting the forest and

Julia. As far as I can tell, little else matters to them in this world. As an outspoken,

courageous woman environmental activist, Julia Butterfly has much in common

with the late Judi Bari. However, Judi Bari claimed alliance with the radical

environmental group, EarthFirst! Julia is careful to avoid that alliance.

As of this writing, Julia's main ground support crew consists of activists

Michael, Spruce, and Shunka. Whenever Julia needs something, she contacts

Michael, and then he organizes a supply run. Unlike the initial stages of Julia's tree

sit, the activists currently do not have to sneak in to see her under darkness of night.

They now just hike in, bringing supplies and sometimes journalists and others.

For many months in the beginning of this action, Robert Parker was Julia's

main support person. Robert maintained Luna Media Service and kept Julia vitally

up-to-date with relevant news items. He also organized and led many news people

to and up Luna. Since Robert's departure, Julia has missed out on hearing much of 79 the news of the forest and the world, but the supply runs still go on, and she still has almost daily visits by members of the media. In addition, Michael and friends have recently made several trips to Luna to replace failing communication equipment.

March 12, 1998:

You seem like you are very isolated Julia, up there, up that high tree way out there in the forest, how much contact do you have with others?

As far as my incredible ground support crew goes, they continue to hike supplies up to me when I need it and information, so that is one way I have a connection. They have been hiking me up letters that have been sent to me from all over the country and then they pack out the letters that I am responding to, all of this incredible out pouring of love and encouragement that is coming from people.

Well, lets talk for a minute about this ground crew, do they have to sneak in there under the darkness of night? Or do they just walk on in and it is okay with PL?

Well it is definitely not okay with PL. Nothing that we are doing here is okay with

PL. In the beginning when there was a lot of intense security heat in the area. We did sneak in and out at night. But, now the activists have found ways, you know every barrier that Pacific Lumber has tried to put up for us, we continue to break through it. And, now they have found all different ways of making it through the barriers to make it up to me at any time, day or night. 80 March 17, 1998:

My ground support crew has been through so much with me, and they have committed themselves to so many things, including being arrested, on behalf of continuing this tree sit and on behalf of myself. So, in my book they are right up there on the top of the list of heroes.

September 22, 1998:

Last week the community was shocked to hear of the untimely death of a forest activist. I am wondering if you can let our listeners know how you first heard about that and what you did.

I found out about David Gypsy Chain being killed under a tree being logged shortly after it happened, by an activist calling me in tears. And my very first response was to call my mother and ask her to pray with me. We prayed that the people that were there and the people that were closest to David would be given love and strength during this time of great sorrow. We prayed that David's death would not be in vain, and that people would see that the violence here has got to stop. And the last thing I prayed for was the strength to dig down deep and continue finding the love that I need to to share with others, to help them see that love is the most powerful thing and that we have got to stop this anger and violence. Over the years, violence against activists in the forest has escalated. There is no excuse for violence. It began years ago with threats that escalated into physical assaults on nonviolent protesters, and now someone has been killed. When will people say, "Enough is enough?" Is 81 cutting trees as fast as one can worth injuring, and now taking, human life? I was

raised to believe human life is sacred, and I know that you were too. The sacred in

this life is priceless.

Julia, I know it is a really hard time for you, and for the rest of the members of our community, no matter, as you say, what side people are on. This is beyond sides. Can you send out a message to our community right now, a healing message that we can all hear?

Yes, the first one is that we have got to stay rooted in love, now more than ever.

This is not about sides. Now is not the time to attack, now is not the time to hate,

and now is not the time to divide. Now is the time to come together and say,

"Enough is enough." Violence is not okay, no matter who you are. We have the

strength to stand in love. That is the most hopeful thing that we can possibly have.

Julia, thank you so much for that message of peace and love on this last day of summer, and we will be talking to you again next week.

September 29, 1998:

When we talked earlier about the "three hundred days," and people asked

you "What would you like as a celebration?" can you share that with the audience?

Sure! I got a call from someone who said "Julia, you are close to the "three hundred

day" mark and I would love to send you something to say 'thanks' as well as to

boost your spirits and keep you going." And I said "Well, honestly I am blessed to

be in a magnificent ancient redwood that is still standing a year after it was marked 82 to be destroyed, and that's all the blessing I need, but the people out in Gypsy Grove could really use some blessings of their own. They are out there in the cold and the wet, defending, taking a stand against the illegal operation that Pacific Lumber was carrying on in that area, as well as honoring David Gypsy Chain. So what I would love for my "three hundredth day" is for gifts to be given to them: warm socks, wool socks and hats, and I said what I would really like is a huge box of vegan chocolate to be dropped off at the blockade. I think that would put a smile in their hearts and in their mouths and in their tummies.

I've never heard of vegan chocolate.

Yes, well, most chocolate is milk chocolate, so it has dairy in it, but even more than that, in the refining process of sugars and chocolates, unless it is vegan, most of the time it is refined through animal bones. Most earth activists tend to be vegetarian, and many of them tend to be vegan, and so because of that they can't eat the regular chocolate that's out there, only vegan chocolate.

October 13, 1998:

One thing a lot of people don't know is that there is someone that has been sitting out in Bell Creek for three months now, who goes by the name of Soma. He has been sitting there protecting the last few old growth trees out there that Pacific

Lumber didn't cut down. There used to be a whole buffer zone there that was

necessary for that stream, and now almost all of it is gone. But, he has been out

there protecting some of the last remaining old growth, out in Bell Creek. 83 I have to admit to you that is the first I have heard of that tree sit.

Yeah, well it's been going on for longer than three months. It was basically an addition onto the Liberty tree sit, which was the first really big, very fancy, as far as well thought out and put together, tree sit. Most tree sits are often very organic. We find stuff from a salvage yard and put together a platform in the middle of the night and then there we are. That tree sit had more technology behind it. But then that one was lost to Climber Dan. In response to that though, new ones were put up. But

Soma has been out there for three months, just sitting away protecting those trees that he cares about.

December 1, 1998:

We are coming up on your one-year anniversary, and I know there is lots going on, and in particular there is a really special event happening on the tenth down in Redway, and maybe you can tell us about that.

Sure. It is going to be a benefit concert, to benefit a very, very good cause. It is going to support the activist community through a community house co-op concept, where there are a lot of needs. I've been up here for a year, and I've seen people dedicated day in, day out, hiking me supplies, hiking other people supplies, being out on the front lines. And a lot of simple needs, like shoes without holes in them, and a roof over their head, kind of falling through the cracks because there is so much to do in this area. And so this benefit is in celebration of the one year of this action, and to support the kind of activism that has made a year of Luna continuing 84 to stand tall possible. There is also going to be a raffle at the event, with some gifts donated by local merchants, and also a handmade book that I made, with scraps of cardboard and boxes that have been sent to me, and some sketches and poetry on it.

And that is going to be raffled.

December 8, 1998:

I know that there are some activities planned to honor your one-year anniversary, which will actually be on Thursday, the tenth of this month. I know there are events going on during the weekend, tell us about the rally.

Sure, well the rally is going to be on the twelfth, right off the Stafford road exit, where the last two have been held, right off the highway. I really want to try and have everybody meet at least some of the people who have helped make this year possible. The media focuses so much on me, and there is such an amazing network of support that has to happen in order for a tree sit to last this long. Some of the people will have a chance to speak and be known, which I feel is very, very important. They have been so vital, people like Michael and Robert and Spruce, and the list goes on and on.

January 19, 1999:

We activists are willing to literally give up everything in life for what we believe in.

We believe strongly that the ancient forests, that the old growth forests, that the health of our environment and our shared lives is priceless. And there's no price that 85 we won't pay to take a stand for this priceless gift. What saddens me is to think about what price will activists have to continue paying? How many more will have to be hurt? And how many more will have to die before we see justice for the earth and our lives.

February 9, 1999:

Is there anything else that you would like to let us know about today?

Well, I think that it's really important for people to be aware that sitters still are in the trees, and that we are here because there is still not the real protection that we need for the forests. We need to continue striving as communities to seek resolution, resolution that is going to provide the real preservation and protection that we need, not only for the forests, but for people's lives. I want to encourage people to keep finding what we have in common, because we all have things in common no matter what we do for a living, and we need to start finding those things in common and working together.

May 4, 1999:

Julia, I was a bit concerned when I got to the station today, and I saw a notice from the sheriff's department. It seems that another forest activist has fallen out of a tree. Can you give us any more information on that?

I have heard that he was in the process of repelling down the tree and something happened. I got the call shortly after the other activist called the sheriff's department 86 or the 911 service and then also called their base office, and then they called me and said, "Please get on the walkie-talkie and see what is going on." I was told that he did have a fractured vertebra. But, other than that, the rest of his body is completely fine, which is really good.

It is just amazing. That says a lot about our forest floor doesn't it.

It does. Absolutely.

June 1, 1999:

Is there anything you want to say to the folks that help you on a daily basis?

Well, I tell them thank you every day. The fact that Luna is still standing for over a year and a half is a real symbol of the commitment and support that we have, not only as individuals, but as community. The community all up and down this area is phenomenal. It has really been so helpful and supportive in so many ways.

111.3 Some of the Ways Julia Participates in Society

Julia participates in society in a variety of ways. Her nonviolent direct action communicates her willingness to put her life on the line for her beliefs. In the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., "The nonviolent resisters can summarize their message in the following simple terms: We will take direct action against injustice without waiting for other agencies to act. We will not obey unjust laws or submit to unjust practices. We will do this peacefully, openly, cheerfully because our aim is to persuade. We adopt the means of nonviolence because our end is a community at 87 peace with itself. We will try to persuade with our words, but if our words fail, we will try to persuade with our acts. We will always be willing to talk and seek fair compromise, but we are ready to suffer when necessary and even risk our lives to become witnesses to the truth as we see it." (Lemert, p.376)

Julia's nonviolent, direct action is much like Dr. King's in that she is the voice of the voiceless (Luna). She has put her life on the line in a nonviolent way to support her beliefs, like Dr. King. Julia has many supporters who have heard her words and read about her, yet have never met her face-to-face.

A few other nonviolent forest activists serve as Julia's ground support crew.

These few individuals are Julia's lifeline in a very literal way. They keep supplies and information flowing both to her and from her.

But being isolated from society, high atop a redwood tree does not keep Julia really as isolated as society may think. There are some very creative ways in which she participates with the rest of society. Most are based in technology.

III.3.a Phone, Pager and Planner

Julia's pager is vital to the success of our talks and is vital for her life. That was made very clear in a conversation we had in May 1998. I had paged her, which was our original routine of connecting. She didn't answer, and so for once I had to start the show without her. She called in to the station part of the way through the program, and so we went live at that later point. Once on-air, I expressed to her how 88 worried I'd been when she did not answer the page. We both chuckled at the concept of a woman living in a tree and being so dependent on a pager.

May 7, 1998:

I was worried earlier when I couldn't reach Julia Butterfly via her pager. I found out she dropped the pager! Julia, that's a long way for a little pager to fall.

Yes, I've been refusing to pay penance to the gods of gravity for about five months now, and I finally had to give them an offering, and the so pager was the sacrifice.

I had a real worry about you for a minute.

It actually has caused a lot of chaos. Everyone has gotten very used to being able to get hold of me that way, and because the pager is in pieces on the ground doesn't mean there isn't a way to notify people of that who are trying to call through. They leave their message and they don't understand why I don't return the call.

I am glad you are fine, it is day number one hundred forty eight, right?

I believe so. My pager and keeping in contact with people is part of the way of helping me keep up with that date and I have kind of lost it again.

Do you have a calendar?

Well, I have my day planner, but the pager kind of kept me in tune with the actual time of the day. And in losing that, I kind of lost my sense of days and where they fit as well, but I do have my planner, and so on occasion I pull it out so I can remember what day I'm on. 89 What's in your planner? What do you have to plan for?

Well, lots and lots of media. I was actually supposed to have a debate on cable NBC today, but for some reason they postponed it. The story came out in Time magazine, and there are a lot of news people that subscribe to Time magazine and have gained interest, so the planner really helps me keep everything organized.

Julia, you know that the concept of you sitting up there in that tree, a hundred and eighty feet up, keeping track of your life with a planner is kind of bizarre, you understand that right?

You're telling me! You know, when I climbed an ancient redwood tree, this ancient redwood tree in particular, Luna, I never would have imagined that I was going to

have my ear to a cell-phone, my hand to a pager, my other hand on a planner half

the time! This tree sit has definitely given us an avenue to bring about public

awareness, and cell phones and pager and planners are a part of that.

(When Julia dropped her pager, I became aware of the routine of our

interactions as well as my expectations that she would always be there when I called. That incident also led me to awareness of the very essence of her reality: that

of a woman living alone in a tree, reliant on technology for participation in society. I

became acutely aware of her fragile and dependent situation.)

June 15, 1999:

Julia, I can hear that you have got some phone difficulties today. 90 Yes. I am actually outside so that the signal is clearer, but then the breeze running

over the mouthpiece might be a bit of a problem. I am trying to get in a place where

the breeze doesn't hit the mouthpiece too much, yet I can still hold a good signal.

The life of living in a tree!

It is a challenge every minute, isn't it!

It is. Absolutely.

July 6, 1999:

And now, joining me live from Luna, is Julia Butterfly, hi Julia!

Hi Geraldine!

You know I always get a panic when I don't get to talk to you right away,

what's going on today?

Well I'm having problems with technology. Yes, you know, every so often Mother

Nature has to remind us that all of our technology in the world will never make us

God, so we had to break down to keep us humble! And my pager, which is the way

to get hold of me, I had it on buzz, because I am doing an interview in the tree as

well. The first time I heard the pager, I had it next to something that it would

vibrate, so I would be able to hear it. I didn't want it too so much noise that it would

mess up the interview, but I didn't hear it the second time around. So, I guess we

were due for another mess up in our weekly talks, and I'm sorry.

It kind of makes it exciting.

Yes, it does. 91

III.3.b Julia's Radio

Listening to local, national and international news on the radio keeps Julia vitally informed. It is important to her to keep up with the rest of the world. She has not always had a radio, nor has the occasional radio always worked.

March 12, 1998:

Do you have a radio? Do you listen to what is going on in the rest of the world? Do you hear your story on the radio?

I do have a radio up here, but for a while it didn't work. Well, I didn't have head phones to listen to it with, but a beautiful individual sent me head phones, so I could kind of keep in contact with what was happening in the communities around the world. And I have heard a couple of local things that I have done, but I almost try not to hear it only because it is really disconnecting for me to hear myself or stories about myself on the radio. I prefer to try and find out what is happening to everyone else so that I can tie it into what I am doing here. Because I feel that it is all a part of the same big picture.

July 9, 1998:

I think about you, and I try to visualize you up on your platform, up in the tree and at least you have got a radio so that sometimes you can hear news or music, and you haven't had one for a week? 92 About a week I guess. Why the radio has been really important to me, is staying really in tune with local community issues. Then as well, getting kind of an overview of general world issues. It has been really kind of hard not having a radio, because, as you know, I don't walk by newsstands every day, and I don't hear things coming over a television. I don't have any of that input. The radio has been my only way of having that input.

July 30, 1998:

A couple of weeks ago you didn't have a radio. Do you have one now?

Yes, I am so blessed. I got a hand crank radio, a people powered radio. It has a little crank on the back. You pull the handle out, and you turn it around and around, thirty times, and then it plays for thirty minutes. It is fantastic. It is completely people powered, and that way there is no waste of batteries or anything. It simply works like that and then when it runs out you just crank it up again.

That is so incredible. I wish you could see me. I have a huge smile on my face. I am picturing you up in that tree, cranking that radio.

It is wonderful. It really is. I am so blessed. People have been so kind. It is my lifeline to the local community. It is my lifeline to everything. I am so blessed to have it again so I can hear what is going on with people in the local areas, as well as the people of the world. 93 III.3.c The Beacons

One of the most exciting ways Julia has participated in society occurred last winter when she set about to display twenty six or twenty seven battery-powered beacons on Luna's branches. At the holiday season this effort to participate in society seemed especially appropriate. I have spoken with several individuals who saw the beacons as they drove on highway 101.

In Julia's words, on December 21, 1998:

From the very beginning, when Luna was first begun, there was a beacon put up at the very top of Luna, because the base camp, at that time, for the tree sits and forest activism, was down in Stafford. And so they put a beacon up as a beacon of hope for base camp, so that people could see Luna blinking away up on top of the hill. I remember the very first time I hiked up this hill in the middle of the night, because at that time you could not come up during the day. I remember seeing the light blinking, and the people I was hiking with telling me that was Luna, and it really just gave me this great surge of hope, like "Wow we can actually make it!" This time Luna will be lit up but just about the top thirty feet, because to light up all of

Luna would take up all the beacons that are made in the world. Over time, Luna has become this big beacon of hope to the world, hope for a society that remembers the importance of things like old growth forests. And so I got, through the help of some wonderful supporters, who all generously helped and donated them, twenty-six or twenty-seven, although I lost count, beacons. And they are all over the branches, 94 and they are facing the highway side, on the front of Luna and on the two sides of

Luna. The beacons are made to blink up to two and three miles. So, Luna can

actually be seen all the way down in Scotia, and of course the best place to see them

is in Stafford. So anyone who is listening, if they want to see it, it's right in Stafford, so if they want to go to Stafford it will be there each night, blinking away. You should be able to see it from a couple of miles in either direction.

That's exciting! How difficult was it for you to "trim the tree" so to speak?

Well, it was made difficult by this extremely cold weather. I have to just climb

around on all the branches, to turn them off and on. Getting them hung up is the

most difficult, because they have a little strap on them, and my fingers were very cold, so it was a little bit difficult getting them hung, but after that, just climbing

around. I put them on branches I climb around anyway, the ones I feel very

comfortable with, and all the way to the very tippy-top. There is one on the absolute

highest point on Luna as I could get it. It's wonderful. It's such a feeling of hope, of

a community's coming together, and the community of the world's care for things

like the old growth forests. It's really just exciting.

December 29, 1998:

I was wondering about the beacon that we talked about last time. And I have

unfortunately not been able to be down on that part of the highway to see it. Are we

still going to get a chance? 95 Well, by popular demand, yes. The battery power lasted for as long as I thought it would, I was able to shine them continuously from the evening of the solstice until the evening after Christmas. They ran continuously every night until then and then the power ran out. I was on the walkie-talkie, the other night, conversing with the activist in the Grizzly Creek area, and this other person was in a car, and heard us and said, "Miss Butterfly, you gonna light up your beacons?" And so I told them that I had run out of battery power, but I got two different requests over the walkie- talkie, and numerous requests through the Luna Media Service, that I continue it.

I've asked for a new battery supply to be brought up so I can run it for at least a couple of more days. It is wonderful to be able to look up and know that light is

Luna, standing tall. I'll have a few closer together at the top for quite a while still to come. Just look up on the ridge top and you'll see twinkling lights. I've been told they look just like stars twinkling in Luna's branches.

111.4 Some of the Others who have Joined our Conversations

Sometimes a third individual joins Julia and me in our live conversations, either in the studio with me, or on another phone line. Each of those individuals has added a unique perspective and social reality, and provides Julia with another layer of societal participation. These interactions demonstrate the admiration others have for Julia and her tree sit. They also provide real life, authentic examples of Julia's values and philosophy. 97 be extremely upset and disturbed, if this particular Headwaters deal gives them more property to log in our valley, plus an inordinate amount of money.

It seems like a big deal to be in Sacramento speaking in front of a committee.

Kristi: It is, and I am very nervous.

Kristi, I have got on the other line Julia Butterfly, and I am wondering if there is anything that either of you want to say to each other?

Kristi: Well, first of all I would like to say hello to her. I hope I get to meet her some day. I would like to encourage her convictions and hope that I can help her address the issue once she is on the ground, so to speak.

Julia: Hi Kristi, this is Julia Butterfly. I want you to know that I am standing behind your community one hundred percent. I have been talking all over the country, on radio stations, where I have a chance to say what I feel. And I have been advocating your rights to have your clean water and your clean environment. If I can do anything more besides telling the world what is happening to you, you let me know.

Kristi: Thank you very much. We appreciate that, and it is very rewarding to hear you speak of those issues, because that is what we are talking about. I am standing up because I care about the water quality that my children are going to inherit. And by my children, I mean everybody's children. I mean you, all of your age group and everyone that comes after you. I am not just taking care of my own family. It is my job as an adult to help take care of everybody's family that comes after me, and I do 98 not believe that we have to raid our environment in such a manner that we preclude other interests.

Julia: Bravo! Bravo! When you go in there today to speak to the legislators, you know that there are a lot of people standing right next to you and behind you. If they are not there physically, they are there in spirit and in heart. You are in my thoughts and prayers.

Kristi: Thank you very much. That does help me a lot, and now I really do need to go prepare myself. I am not adept at public speaking. It is not a comfortable venue for me.

Julia: Well, thank you for taking a stand. I greatly appreciate it.

Julia, what do you think? It's amazing. I am sitting here in tears listening to the passion in Kristi's voice.

I am too. That was an incredible, incredible moment for anyone who is listening. I know that she said she is not adept at speaking, but she is speaking from her heart.

One thing that I have experienced in my sit here is that no matter how much science they throw at me, it never works, because I come from the heart, and all of it, all of the big picture comes from that. It all ties together. She is going to be really powerful in there today. 99 Well Julia, thank you, anything else for listeners today?

Well I just want to encourage them to take a stand. A lot of people are looking at me as being amazing. But, the power that lies within the individual is incredible.

III.4.b Nate Madsen

The first time, in October of 1998, Nate Madsen joined Julia and me in our conversation, the tape did not record. That is so disappointing, as Nate at that time had just very recently climbed a tree on Pacific Lumber land just off the Kneeland

Road. He was trespassing on Pacific Lumber land in a similar way to Julia's tree sit.

Nate also had a platform, a few amenities and a cell phone. During that conversation

Nate and Julia dialogued about the perils of tree sitting, and she gave him some great advice.

Thanksgiving Day was the second time I had them on-air together. I had a lot to be thankful for, especially since the previous Tuesday, when Julia and I would have normally had our conversation, I was unable to get hold of her. That was the

first regular conversation we missed. Fortunately, I got the opportunity to host the program later that same week on Thanksgiving Day.

November 26, 1998:

There are a couple of folks I've got on the line this Thanksgiving Day. And

we are going to hear from them now and find out what they are thankful for. For the

listeners that may not be aware, I know we've got lots of folks in for the holidays, 100 Julia and Nate are two of our local tree-sitters. Julia is coming up on almost a year in a tree, and Nate has been aloft for a little over a month and a half Nate, I know you are expecting some visitors for Thanksgiving dinner, is that right?

Nate: Yes. That is very true, there are some folks down below setting up the

Thanksgiving feast right now.

What are you thankful for?

Nate: Oh I have a practically endless list of things to be thankful for, but to try and be concise, I am very thankful for this tree to be standing here still and the chance to give me a place to be housed, for a temporary time. I am incredibly thankful to all the folks below who help me in this effort in to stay up here. They bring me food and hot water, and really take incredibly good care of me. I am thankful for the chance to just be alive and enjoying such a beautiful planet, I have the blessings of all the good gifts of mother earth, and I am thankful for each and every one.

Julia Butterfly, what are you thankful for?

Well, Geraldine, I am definitely thankful for the fact that you and I have been able to talk every single week for months on end now. The amount of learning and sharing we have been able to do for that time really makes my heart smile. And I am most definitely thankful for Luna to still be standing. Luna has been standing now for over a year since she has been marked to be turned into somebody's deck or siding, and that gives me a lot to be thankful for because it has taken a lot of hard

work on a lot of different people's parts, and a lot of community support that this 101 tree sit would not have been able to continue this long without it. And I think that is something to really be thankful for many, many people, including my direct support team that has been there every step of the way.

Nate, you have some of the community there with you, and I know you are going to have a feast. Can you tell us a little bit about what is happening?

Nate: Sure, they're actually down here hollering at me right now. They've got an

R.V. set up, and they're cooking, and more people keep arriving. It is quite a party down there. I bet you can hear them.

Now Julia, you are in a place where you don't have family or friends with you for Thanksgiving, how is that for you?

Well, this is the one of many holidays that I've had up here, without people around, but I am still surrounded by the family of the earth. That is all of our family, and I feel people's love and support, and that has really helped me. Even when I can't see people, I can feel that love and their support and the prayers that are out there. And that has really helped me through some of this incredible weather we've had now, over the last year and in the last few days. I am interested to hear how Nate has weathered the storm.

Nate: Oh, it has been exciting! I got completely soaked last Saturday, and since then the wind has been so incredible. On the few less than wet moments, the wind just blows everything dry, the incredible wind. Although it is scary, when the tree starts rocking. But some of the folks have brought me a couple of new tarps, and I have 102 those set up, and I didn't get a single drop on me last night. So right now I am feeling pretty confident, but I know the penetrating abilities of water, so, I'll be leery at the same time.

Julia, you told me an incredible story about earlier this week when you spent five hours out in the hail tying your tarps? That is amazing.

Well, it was off and on over five hours, because I had to keep coming in to answer this pager. But, the wind is really intense. I have learned over the year up here how to get things all situated. But there are some times where the wind just comes and brings the hail. It was hailing all day long, and it just started shredding the tarps, so I had to re-roof in the hail. But it is amazing, because I have been up here for so long that I have become one with it. Things like the cold and wet aren't hard anymore.

They are just weather, they are just cold and wet, so it is really just an amazing experience of learning to become one with my surroundings. We have been given the most amazing, precious, sacred, priceless gift when we were given life, and that it is the ultimate gift to be thankful for. We should treat life as the sacred gift that it is, and most definitely be thankful for it, because it is absolutely, beyond description, the most amazing gift that we could possibly be given.

III.4.c Julia's Dad, Dale Hill

June 29, 1999:

I would like to welcome my guest, Dale Hill into the studio. 103 Dale: Thank you Geraldine, and now joining us live via cell phone from the tree she calls Luna is my daughter, Julia Butterfly.

Julia: Hello Geraldine. Hi Daddy.

I can't help laughing, I am sorry. This is so exciting to have Julia's dad here in the KHSU studio.

Julia: Who would have thought, and after all of this time, Geraldine.

One of the things that 1 have wanted to ask you, Dale, is, how has it been for you, having such a famous daughter, and what do some of the folks back home say to you about her? Julia you just chime in here, I don't mean to leave you out.

Julia: It is fun listening.

Dale: Julia, you remember David? Well, David is my really good friend, and he says, "I don't agree with what she is doing, but be sure to tell Julia I love her." Of course I challenged him and said, "David, the only thing you know that she is doing is what Rush Limbaugh tells you."

Julia: Right, which is actually some of the mentality not only in Arkansas but even out here. I hear it across the country. People do make assumptions and generalizations. So, when I have a chance to talk with people and interact with people on a more personal level, I think it helps. It doesn't always work, but people a lot of times do end up shifting because they realized that I am a human being just 104 as they are, and that there isn't just one side to this story. There are a lot of different pieces that make this puzzle complete, and unless you have all of those pieces, you can't possibly have the complete picture.

Dale: Julia, thanks for the kind words publicly on Sunday there at the Benbow

Summer Arts Fair of course over the phone as usual.

Julia: I was wondering if you heard that.

Dale: Yes I did. She is doing something that she believes in, and it is inspiring to me because half my life, I think, I have spent in regret of not doing things I believed in.

Here, I am finding that it is possible to do it and survive. She is doing it well, and I

am just proud of her.

Have you felt that way all along, as Julia was growing up?

Julia: I am laughing because that is something I touched on when I was sharing

some poetry over the phone with folks down at the Summer Arts festival on Sunday.

I started out by honoring my father. I knew he was there, and I talked over my

phone to folks there about my parents raising me to stand by my convictions and to

question authority. Then of course, when I reached my teenage years, they were

thinking, "Well maybe we shouldn't have given her that advice. She is taking it a

little too well." It is kind of like, "We are the parents, don't question us, but question

everyone else. I was raised by my parents to question that if I saw that something 105 was false, that it wasn't something I could believe in, to take a stand against it. But I do think, speaking from my own experience, I do think my teenage years were probably some of the bigger challenges for my parents.

Dale: No doubt. No doubt, that is true. I guess that your listening audience is aware that for four and a half years we were on the road, in a traveling ministry in biblical

Christianity. I had the stupidity of setting the example a number of times of challenging authority, and I didn't realize what kind of a pattern I was setting for

Julia. But, I have always had the same thing. My most long term difficulties came when I was in the military. I was brought up to respect authority, but authority had to earn that respect. In the military, that doesn't work. If a guy is an officer, he deserves respect. That didn't work in my book, and I never could make it meet there. So, it was the same thing in the Church. I challenged authority that was obviously not true authority. That was something I wasn't supposed to do in that circle either, but apparently it set a good example for Julia, and I am glad.

111.5 Sometimes, we talk about other issues in the news

Julia listens to public radio stations KHSU and KMUD, and has participated

in live call-in talk shows on both local stations. She especially tunes in to local,

national and world news. I have enjoyed hearing her perspective on global events.

She is not as isolated as one may think. This particular set of conversations provides

another layer to the understanding of society from the perspective of a woman who 106 is living in a tree, while providing Julia another opportunity to talk about her environmental concerns, and of course, love.

III.5.a Iraq

In Julia's words, on March 12, 1998:

My thoughts lately have been towards the community of our entire world. I realize that the struggles that are occurring here in the local communities are just a part of the big picture.

What have you heard recently on the radio on the news that is an important issue to you, in addition to the forest issues?

One of the issues is the bombing that is occurring in Iraq. That is very important to me because my biggest belief is that all the wrongs that are occurring in life are a result of the same evil power and that evil power is self centeredness, greed, and power lust. And, that same power lust is what is causing war, that same power lust is what is causing the destruction of our environment. That same power lust is what is causing all of these things that I am fighting against. I believe that there is one thing that is going to heal all of these ruins, and is going to stop these atrocities, and that is love. And my reason for feeling that is because you can't bomb someone if you love them. You can't blow them up if you love them. That is occurring in Iraq because certain individuals want to control the oil there. They want to control the hidden wealth that is in the Mother. So by trying to place claims on that, they are 107 completely doing away with the sacredness of human lives, and I feel very, very strongly about that.

III.5.b Jonesboro

Most of the time when Julia and I talk about world events, it is in response to a question from me, such as the previous one. However, every now and then I am totally surprised by the information I receive from her.

In Julia's words, on March 27, 1998:

Something from my past has just hit me really hard, in the last few days, and that's because of the shootings in the town of Jonesboro, the town where I went to high school and went to college. When I first heard about those shootings, I had a couple of days up here that were really sad, and I'm still very sad, but I am kind of absorbing it and working through it. I had some really horrible, horrible things happen to me in that town as well. And to hear about the atrocities that have just occurred to one of the families that I believe I know, brought back a lot of those memories. Sometimes, when we have memories that we think we've dealt with, sometimes they come up in a new light, and you kind of have to face them again. I almost lost my life at the hands of men in that town twice.

I am sure that in that town after such a tragedy as those shootings, a lot of the people are turning to God and their religion to help them through this. But I believe that a lot of the things that happen in that town are a direct result of the 108 religion there. I used to joke, and now it's not so funny, when I look at it in a new

light, that Jonesboro is the "hole in the buckle of the Bible Belt." I mean it is like the epicenter. If you're not involved in religion, there's nothing else for you to do.

Religion there is very controlling. Creativity in that town is extremely squelched in so many different ways. People's lives, especially children's lives, are very fragile.

And when you begin applying pressure, it starts to bend and then it eventually

shatters, and when it shatters, that's when events like what just happened with the

children happen, or that's when these men, who were oppressed and frustrated with

their lives strike out at women like myself. And that's how I think it's tied in. That

town is really oppressive, and they have done their best for years to hide some of the

things that have been going on, and keep the model idea of that perfect town, but

this was just too big too hide.

So, now that you are away from that town, in both time and distance, and

have a different perspective, if the people in Jonesboro were listening to this

broadcast right now, what would you want to tell them?

Well, I want to tell them healing things, first of all, because that's where the answers

lie to all of our problems in life, in finding a way to heal the wounds, not only in

nature but in people's lives. And oppressing people's ideas and creativity always

results in ruptures and explosions. I experienced that first hand actually, because I

traveled my whole life before moving to Jonesboro in a camping trailer. And

because my father was an evangelist, I spent most of my life in church, and what I

saw time and time again, what's the saying about preacher's kids? They're always 109 the worst? Most preacher's children that I saw or church children were the ones who had the most amount of rules in their family. Some children in some churches I went to weren't even allowed to play with toys. They were supposed to be adults. Their actions always had to reflect God, and toys didn't reflect God. And those were the girls that always ended up pregnant without a partner. Those were the girls and boys that ended up in juvenile detention centers or in jail for various offenses. It was directly related, you could see from the amount of pressure that was coming down from their religion and their parents, as to how far they ruptured and fragmented out.

So I guess I want to encourage people in that town to provide ways for children to vent the hostilities. Our environment now is extremely hostile, separate from that church, separate from that town, our environment is hostile. It's coming from the news, it's coming from every form of media, in movies, in the radio, everything if you listen, there's hostility. And I think it is time to tune out some of that hostility and focus more on positive and creative ways of doing things.

May 28, 1998:

Julia, I am sure you know that there has been another shooting at a school, this time in Oregon. And what I have come to realize, is that we all live in a world that is unsafe for children. That is just the way it is. What is your take on that?

It is really sad. You know, my family moved to Jonesboro, Arkansas. It was a small town, a very religious town, a small community where most people know each other, so therefore that meant it was safe. And the same thing happened there. Anger 110 and hostility and frustration and feeling oppressed and helpless are permeating society, not just in big cities, but everywhere. And because of that, all of the places where we felt like made us safe, are no longer safe. The answer is something I talk about on a lot of different issues, and that means bringing things back to a community level. And looking at this, that as a society, as a whole, the picture seems too big. But it is like a jigsaw puzzle. When we get a very hard jigsaw puzzle, and we look at it we think, "My god I can't put that together." But if you just open up the box and start putting the outer edge pieces together, you know that they have a flat side, and so you know that is where to begin, and piece by piece by piece the puzzle comes together. And so when I talk about bringing the issue back to a community level, I mean finding those pieces with the straight edge, and knowing that if we can put that perimeter on the community level than the other pieces on the inside will fall into place.

It is such a hard concept for me to grasp now, sending our children to school and not feeling safe about it, and walking down the streets and not feeling safe, so I want to ask you right now, are you safe, Julia, up in that tree? Do you feel safe?

Well, you know the reason I feel safe, is because of an amazing experience I had up here, when I thought I was going to die in the storm. And what I realized is that most people in this world do die from tragedy, and it is very, very sad, but they do, and so many people live out of fear that they don't really live, they just exist, and then they die. And I have been freed from that because I am living. I am living and fighting for things that I know are right and are important to the universe, 111 specifically to the local area, but to the planet as a whole. And because of that it takes the fear element out of the feeling of dying because I don't have to, I am not going to, if I were to die up here, it would be in a place that I love. And doing what I love and what I feel passionately about. So it puts it on a whole different level for me, than many people who are on the ground in society.

III.5.c Yugoslavia

In Julia's words, on June 1, 1999:

I would like to encourage people to support the peace effort for Yugoslavia. My dear friend Shunka has been marching on the Arcata Plaza for peace almost every single day and doing it by himself. He has been a constant voice saying, "I believe in peace and I am going to remind people we need it." The fifth of this month is also the national day in protest against the war and calling for peace on this planet. I

am going to hang a target banner from Luna in solidarity with that movement. I

would really like to encourage people that on the fifth, whether they only have ten

minutes or an hour or a few hours, to commit to some point in time during that day

in this effort to bring about peace on earth and peace with the earth.

June 8, 1999:

Julia there was a great photograph on the front page of Saturday's Times

Standard. I am not sure if you get it delivered up there or not, but it was you, at the 112 very top of Luna with banner of a big heart, and below you was a big target. That was quite a phenomenal photograph. How long did you keep that up?

It is still up. I am keeping it up at least through the year and a half anniversary, which is on the tenth of this month.

Can people see it from the highway?

I have had people say that. I got a call from someone who said, "Julia what did you do, you must have remodeled, something looks different up there." People can see that there is something white now, instead of my blue tarp, but you can only see the target through binoculars. It is a seven-foot square target, so it is pretty big. I have been doing a lot of interviews around this year and a half anniversary, and I was doing a call in radio show today. Someone said that they had heard John Campbell on the radio saying that, well my hanging that banner is proof that the forest issues here are done with. He said, "They have done their job and so now Julia is just using the spotlight of this tree sit and moving on to other issues." I have been very saddened and very disheartened by the bombing in Yugoslavia. I am against violence in all of its forms. I believe in peace on earth and peace with the earth, and we can't have peace through violence. You and I have had many conversations over the past year dealing with the violence here in Humboldt County. So, I was really trying to find a way to show solidarity with this peace movement and say "Please, can we stop the violence." The symbol of the target that I have heard so much about on the news came to me. In the war here, in the redwoods, Luna is a target. In that war, the people in Yugoslavia are targets. Everything and everyone in life becomes 113 a target. I am not switching issues. I am just connecting them. They are all connected. I believe very passionately in coming from a place of love and respect.

That is why I painted that really big heart. The target is my symbol of solidarity, but to me the heart is the symbol of peace. In talking with someone today they said we should start making that our new peace symbol. The peace symbol for the nineties leading into the year 2000 is the heart.

111.6 Sometimes We Talk about Other Media Talking about Julia

All variety of media has paid attention to Julia. I have especially enjoyed finding her in the mainstream media. Julia's portrayal in other media adds yet another layer to the context of knowing her social world through interactions.

September 8, 1998:

I have to talk about this again. The September edition of Good

Housekeeping, I know it is a fairly unusual publication for you and me to be talking about, but there's a good reason. Shall I go ahead and tell or would you like to?

Go ahead, if you'd like.

I am so excited by the September 1998 issue of Good Housekeeping. The magazine is asking readers to cast their vote for the Thirtieth Annual Most Admired

Women in America Survey. The big change this year is that they have divided the

Most Admired Women into categories. So there is the category of Admired Women

Entertainers, and there's one for Public Leaders and Opinion Makers. There is one 114 for Women in the News, Women Journalists and Authors, and Women under the Age of Thirty, and in addition another change they have made at Good Housekeeping that they are debuting this time, is the Most Admired Hall of Fame. Barbara Bush is the first inductee. Now what all this is bringing me to, Julia, is that you have been nominated as one of the Most Admired Women in the News. So what do you think?

Oh wow. It kind of makes me get blown away with amazement, every time I hear it.

We get terms like "environmentalist" or "worker," and these words separate us.

Making it into this magazine is proving that we are not separate. We are all connected, it is about us all working together to make this a beautiful planet for all life and I think this magazine really kind of hits that home, it kind of gives me shivers every time I read it.

Yeah well I would have to agree with that, I think that you are a fairly unique addition to the list, if I might go ahead and read the list of the women nominated for Most Admired in the News: Mary Bono, Julia Butterfly Hill, Carolyn

Bisset-Kennedy, Bobbie McCoy, Mitsubishi Motor Employees, Dana Reeve,

Pleasant Roland, and Lorna Wendt. So, what I would encourage folks to do is to either get your own copy of the September 1998 Good Housekeeping, go to page 31 and vote for women in all five categories, or you can find them via internet access, and here you go it is at http://goodhousekeeping.com. If you go to that sight, you will be able to vote as well, and Julia I don't mean you of course because you are in the tree, and I don't think you've got internet access yet, right?

No, I thought that was a bit too much technology for a tree! 115 Good Housekeeping is one of those truly mainstream publications that is somehow paying attention to your action.

Yes, and that is one of those things that I thought of and mentioned the first time I heard about this. I think that people are waking up to the fact that destroying the planet that gives us life is crazy, and people taking a stand against that is the right thing to do. And other people are beginning to understand that. I think making it into this magazine helps prove that point.

December 8, 1998:

Well, I have to tell you that I had a very nice surprise waiting for me when I got home last night. My son had taped the NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw, and the very last story was one about you. I got to see you up close and personal, which is the first time I've gotten to see your beautiful face! So that was really fun. I was amazed. It looked like the camera was right up there with you in the tree, inside your little covered platform. Tell us about that.

Sure. An activist hiked up the hill, one of my absolutely wonderful, amazing, can't ever say enough wonderful things about them, direct ground support crew. This was

Michael. He hiked up the hill and brought a video camera with him, and then I, over the phone, did an interview with NBC Nightly News while Michael filmed the interview. So they were a few miles away, doing the interview over the phone, while Michael was up on the platform with me, filming as we talked. 116 That was absolutely wonderful footage, and of course the magic of television made me feel like Tom Brokaw was with you. He wasn't I guess.

No, not yet. We are working on that! No one from NBC came onto Pacific Lumber land. They stayed on a property where they didn't feel like they'd get in trouble for being there. It was just the activist who does wonderful things like keep me fed, this time bringing a camera up with some food, and dropped off some supplies, and apparently did a wonderful job. I have heard great responses from the camera work that he did.

It was really wonderful. I know what you look like now. You and I have talked to each other for so many weeks, and we have never actually met in person.

I know. And it is really funny. I have met hardly anyone in person. Yet I have these amazing concepts in my mind, voices and stuff make me think that people look a certain way, and then sometimes people will send me pictures and I have to laugh because they look nothing like my mind conjured them up to be.

That's the magic of radio.

June 22, 1999:

My son subscribes to Rolling Stone Magazine and when I got home from work one day last week, he goes, "Hey Mom, your friend Julia's picture is in

Rolling Stone." And sure enough, there is a full page, gorgeous, color photograph of you in the Rolling Stone magazine and a smaller picture and story on the other page, how about that? 117 Yeah, how about that? They cover issues that are in the public spotlight. I thought

the article was over all good. One of the things that I was happy about is that they

mentioned the use of herbicides. I am so glad they covered it because a lot of

people, when they can't necessarily associate with forest issues, they do associate

with how it affects their lives. They understand it when I say that clear cuts cause

mudslides, which destroys peoples' homes. It connects them somehow.

July 6, 1999:

Julia, a couple of weeks ago we mentioned that great couple of photos of you

in Rolling Stone Magazine, as well as the nice article. The photos are gorgeous, and

a friend was over yesterday, and I was showing the photos to her, and she said,

"Why did Julia have to put all that make-up on?" So we had the concept of the

make-up artist climbing the tree and touching your face up.

Well, even my own mother called and said, "Julia, did you put on make-up for that

shot?" And I just started laughing, "No mama, I didn't wear make-up, no a make-up

artist did not come into the tree." Technology these days allows them to put the

photograph into the computer, into what is called a photo edit shop. They boost the

brightness in things. You can tell if you look at where my feet are in the picture,

they are in a blanket, and in the picture the blanket looks really, really bright almost

neon colors. But my actual blanket is muted. It is a dark red, not a bright almost

pink-red like it is in that picture. I actually give reporters a hard time, because the

mainstream reporters that come up, a lot of times actually, even men have on face 118 make-up, pancake make-up. And they have gel in the their hair, and I like to give them a hard time, of course. One time this guy was climbing up on the rope, and I realized his hair wasn't moving at all. I started laughing and I said "I can tell that you are a reporter because you are wearing more make-up than I have in the last year, and your hair hasn't moved in an inch." He laughed and said, "Shut up."

But he made it up that tree so he obviously was in pretty good shape.

It definitely takes being in good shape. That's kind of the life of camera people. Part IV: Some Emergent Sociological Themes

Human interaction structures everyday life. Scholars say that face-to-face human interaction is essential to active participation in society. Technology provides Julia Butterfly access to active participation in society. Technology is crucial to her ability to interact with others. It is clear that she wants to interact, as the goal of her tree sit is to call attention to issues of the environment, in addition to protecting the tree she calls Luna.

Julia's reliance on technology would seem to be at odds with her close commitment to protecting the environment and her avid anti-consumerism stance.

However, it is clearly because of technology that she is able to espouse her values on a worldwide level daily.

My challenge has always been to make my data in the tapes sociological, to set it apart from an otherwise journalistic biography. The "Conversations with Julia

Butterfly" are sociological in that they reflect society from the point of view of a woman living in a tree as a nonviolent direct action. As a longitudinal study, the passage of time and events add context and depth to the conversations.

I have interpreted Julia's biography within the context of this particular historical moment, and then shared my interpretation with the larger society. The sociological imagination, according to C. Wright Mills, enables us to grasp history and biography and the relations between the two within society, adding that "to

119 120 recognize this task and this promise is the mark of the classic social analyst." (p. 6)

Mills goes on to describe the sociological imagination as working "between the personal troubles of milieu and the public issues of social structure," (p. 8) or the intersection of personal biography with history.

Julia's goal all along has been to communicate with society. Direct action, as in Julia's tree sit, has historically been a way in which activists seek negotiations with corporations and government agents. Direct action is seen as one of very few alternatives to taking on corporate power, to combating powerlessness.

"Direct action of a specific issue or site is aimed at a larger audience, and the action should always be interpreted by the activists. Smart and creative communication of the message is as important as the action itself." (Devall, p.126)

Smart and creative communication of the message is what Julia is all about. The message of nonviolence, along with themes of universal solidarity, the dignity of the self, of protecting the old growth forests, as well as the message that love is the answer, can be heard through a variety of interactions throughout our conversations.

IV.1 Universal Solidarity and the Dignity of the Self: Individual and Society

Over the time of our conversations, Julia and I have spoken about so many things. Sometimes I have intentionally asked her specific questions, with the intent of using the material in a documentary for the radio and then finally for this thesis.

Sometimes we talk about the weather and her everyday life in the tree. Within the variety of conversation topics, several sociological themes, relevant to ethnography, 121 may be bracketed. Themes of universal human solidarity, the dignity of the self, and the value of human life resound throughout the conversations.

March 12,1998:

What do you miss most, in everyday life, now that you are up in that tree?

I almost can even say that I don't miss anything. There have been moments day in and day out, as I have lost my, my society world self that I felt moments of loosing things. But, what I have gained in return is so much higher than what I have given up. What I have given up is my tie to security, to the things that we have been led to believe are important in life. And what I have gained in return is the knowledge of the real things in life, the real important things of life, and everything else seems to fail in comparison.

Tell me the most rewarding thing about what you are doing right now.

There are so many, I don't know if I could list one. Seeing change, in the lives of people and in people's thought processes has been phenomenal, has been absolutely so amazing. Another one of the rewarding things is knowing that this tree is still standing. This incredible, majestic tree that is a major part of holding up this hillside, is still standing. And being a part of a group of activists that is so tight knit and so dependent on each and every aspect, in each part of each other has been very rewarding as well.

What is the most difficult thing about what you are doing? 122 The most difficult thing was surviving the first month, when I had to sit here and watch as one by one, by one, trees smashed into the ground. The men that were cutting them down had no respect for them, had no respect for the hillside, the watershed that is on this hillside, had no respect for the people in the town of

Stafford below them who had already lost seven homes. And now, more homes are being threatened as a result of the fact that they continue to cut on this hillside. That month was really hard, because even though I knew that what I was doing was important, and I had to take care of this tree, and I had to be a voice for the forest, and for the people, it was very, very frustrating for me to watch all of those other trees smash into the ground, and for me to have no control over it or ability to save them, or stand up for them. And that was really, really hard. It took a big toll on me, but it was also a major part in developing who I have become. So, in that aspect it is a positive thing. A positive thing that has come out of negativity.

What is the difference between a good day for you and a bad day for you?

The good days are fantastic to the point where laughter splits my lips, over and over and over without control. The bad days are so bad, that nothing but tears fall out of my eyes and out of my heart. Good days are days like today when there are no helicopters. There is no yarder, and there are no chainsaws, just a beautiful sunny day. On the bad days there are high fierce winds, with rain, sleet and hail. There are chainsaws going in the distance, helicopters raping the hillside and the yarder, with its insistent beeping, beeping, beeping, over and over and over as it picks up the logs that the helicopter lays down, and loads them onto the trucks I see. The workers 123 look like ants marching into their fort and then marching back out. If you are at a picnic and you see the row of ants going to the chip that has been left on the ground, that is what they look like on bad days up here. But the ants are trucks and on those trucks are beautiful trees that are logs now, trees that used to be a part of holding up this hillside and a part of this forest.

December 29, 1998:

Well, Julia, many of us down here on the planet are celebrating Christmas holidays and festivities, and I'm wondering how this holiday season has been for you? Have you had company? Have you been lonesome? What's going on?

Well, there's definitely been an overwhelming amount of love pouring out, as always. It seems like during this holiday season where people have breaks from work and from school, I've been getting all manner of visitors, from Pacific Lumber employees to their children, to people from all over the country and from Canada, and they just pop up and all of a sudden I hear howling and "Butterfly! Butterfly!" like right now I can hear some people in the background trying to say goodbye to me, but I'll have to wait until we are done talking. But they just pop up out of nowhere, and I talk to them for as long as I can. Then they go about their way. And it is wonderful because you can always tell people just feel great. The people that popped up today are from Michigan, and this woman I was speaking with from

Michigan said, "You know, it's just a shame what they are doing, Julia, because we've done too much damage, and there's a point where we have to say enough is 124 enough. I'm from Michigan and even I know that!" I think it's wonderful, I get all kinds of visitors saying all kinds of things.

That must be marvelous for you! This is the time of year that many of us reflect on what's happened in the year that's passed, and I know for both you and me, we've had quite a lot going on. I'd like to hear from you, I'd like to hear some reflections from 1998. What can you say about the previous year?

Well, it is really interesting for me, when I look back on 1998. The beginning of the year for me was when the helicopter logging in this area began to happen, and then the massive windstorms. The end of January and the beginning of February was just some of the most terrifying moments for me up here, and the hardest, where I was wrapped in tarps and getting hit with hail and sleet continuously and suffering soft- frostbite and just one thing after another. Then, when the worst of El Nino passed, there was the security siege by Pacific Lumber, where they tried to cut off my supplies and starve me down. They blew air-horns to keep me awake at night. Then, after one of the worst nights of the storms, when I hadn't slept for days, and I was really trying to hold on to the tree and to hold on to me, twenty people hiked up the hill, risking arrest, to re-supply me. And through a very loving and fun way, we managed to pull off two supply runs. Then there has been the Headwaters Forest

Agreement coming down the line, closer and closer and closer, and even though they've made compromises and amendments, ultimately it's not a good deal and it's not going to stop the protests, and it's not going to stop the destruction of the forests. We are still dealing with that. Then there was the escalating of the violence 125 on the Mattole. As sad and horrifying as that was, it was also the beauty of the local communities finally stepping up and saying, "You know what, this is no longer an activist/environmentalist issue, this is about our lives, and what Maxxam is doing is destroying our lives." And we saw the Mattole residents get involved, and the

Freshwater residents get involved. We've seen Nate Madson climb his tree, and hold on to it and deal with unfortunately a lot of different things, including a few nights ago someone drove by and destroyed the car of an activist who was up in the tree. We lost David Gypsy Chain, unfortunately, to the destruction of a forest, and in an area that was deemed illegal to operate in. But ultimately, even with all the violence and the frustration and the sadness and the anger and the hostility and the forest falling, as that rise in that negative energy has happened, we have also seen a rise in positive energy. We see the rise in people committed to taking a stand in

nonviolence, through love, committed to taking a peaceful stand. Even as activists

have been pepper-sprayed for merely sitting down as a way for them to get their

voice heard, we have seen people continuously come forward in love and say, "We

are not going to back down. We are not going to go away. We're not going to allow

you to destroy the environment that belongs to us all."

Some people still don't seem to understand that Julia is committed to

continuing her direct action. She has indeed spoken all over the world via her cell

phone from her perch high atop Luna. Due to her mastery of this aspect of 126 technology, she has actually surprised many of her admirers because she is still in the tree, and yet she participates in society as if she is just life everybody else.

In Julia's words, on April 13, 1999:

There was a rally that's going on down in Southern California, and I got a call from some individuals, and they were so excited, and they said to me, "Oh, you're going to be speaking at this event. We're so excited." And I listened to them for a bit and realized that they didn't understand that I was going to be speaking at the event in the same way I do at every event, which is over the phone.

June 22, 1999:

I have started thinking, in terms of you being up there a year and a half. It is a pretty phenomenal concept. I think about it in terms of you really dedicating your life to a cause for a year and a half. I want to know, from that year and a half, what have you learned about yourself as an individual and then what have you learned about all of us as a society?

Oh my! I hope we get to talk about this on a couple of shows.

We will just do part one of that one today.

Some of the greatest lessons have been learning the power of letting go. Letting go of attachments, to fear, to comfort, to things, attachments to people, attachments to even my own life. It has taught me about love, about what a tremendous power love is and that it is not just some fluffy kind of feel good kind of feeling. That it is a fire 127 that can drive us to a commitment level that I for one didn't know was possible. I couldn't imagine that I was going to be up here a year and a half later. I have told people before and I will say it again, if I had seen what was coming, I probably would have went running and screaming in the opposite direction. I can't do that.

But love and prayer, day by day, moment by moment and breath by breath as it enters my body, has given me the strength to persevere. To take a stand for what is right and to not back down. What I think I learned about society from this perspective is that, society as a whole has really come to feel disconnected. That is why we are dealing with mudslides, that is why we are dealing with herbicide poisoning of the land and animals, water and people. That is why we are dealing with nuclear proliferation, and bombing of people and all of these different issues today. They are all happening because, as a society as a whole, I think we have lost our connection to the earth and our connection to each other. One of the things I have really tried to work on through my action up here, is to help people realize how beautiful and magical and wonderful it is to reconnect, to utilize our actions and our words in our life to reconnect with the earth and with each other.

IV.2 The Value of All Life in Julia's Own Values and Philosophy

Julia Butterfly is an internationally known spokesperson for issues involving protection of the redwood forest. She is frequently given a microphone at the other end of her cell phone, which she uses to espouse her values. Her values ultimately include protection of all species of living things and love as a means of getting 128 along in society. These themes are echoed in postmodern ethnography and can be heard repeatedly throughout the "Conversations with Julia Butterfly."

Julia's values are easily interpreted from each conversation. My own values are in line with Julia's, and are just as easily interpreted, much as I like to think I am sounding objective. So much of what we talk about is personal for both of us. It is meant to be personal, and it is reflexive. The very questions that I ask Julia and the topics we discuss, even the structure of our interactions have come about because of a unique form of understanding based in personal biography. In his essay "Science a

Vocation," Max Weber (1946) discussed the concept of "verstehen" as empathetic understanding. According to this concept, a subjective understanding of social meanings is unavoidable, and that completely delights me.

I interpret Julia's counterculture way of life for the dominant culture, the radio audience. I am implicitly expected to maintain personal objectivity, as I am perceived as a radio journalist. I have tried to interact with Julia in an overtly objective manner, and I have not accomplished that. I am not a journalist; I am a sociologist, an ethnographer who shares values with the subject of my research.

Like many social scientists before me, I have found that value-freedom is an illusion of modern science. "It is impossible to do science without bringing into play one's personal values." (Straus, p15) 129 IV.2.a Teaching Children: Students as the Future of the Planet

Throughout our conversations themes of teaching children as a means of endowing our future can be heard. Kristi Wrigley spoke with us of her wish to leave

a healthy planet not just to her biological children but to the children of the world.

Julia spoke eloquently about the sad situation of children growing up in Jonesboro.

Julia is using her position in the tree to reach out to children as the future of the planet and to empower them with a love of the earth. She says that their future

lies in our hands. She especially enjoys talking with groups of school children from

around the world. They reportedly listen attentively to her. Some have written her

letters and recorded songs for her as well.

In Julia's words, on August 20, 1998:

Luna Media Service has been getting e-mails from, Jakarta, Indonesia. It seems that

they are using this action as a way to teach in the classrooms there. The young

people who e-mail me are learning about good forestry practices and inspiring

people to stand up for the quality of their lives. So, it is amazing. The reach of this

tree sit has gone beyond my imagination ever could have. That is for sure.

August 27, 1998:

Yesterday I talked with your friend Patrick at the Butterfly Ranch down there

in Stafford. He says they can see Luna from the ranch. 130 Yes they can. Patrick is an incredible man. He has a huge heart and a lot of love for children. We share that. And what we are talking about is the future of these children. Their future lies in our hands. By being good stewards today, we help provide a beautiful life for them in the future.

April 20, 1999:

You told me a little earlier that you had a fascinating interview this morning.

Let's talk a little bit about that.

I'm so blessed up here because not only have I been led to an experience where I can learn so much, but also I'm doubly blessed because I get to share what I learn with others. I have been very blessed with that chance. Today I got to speak at a high school in Montana, and it was phenomenal. These students are so in tune, they were so amazing. They asked the most wonderful questions, like, "If this is not an economy versus the environment issue, how can we start making an economy based on sustainability and using only what is allotted to us? How do we know what the best actions are to take in our life? How do you feel about what kind of stands we must take?" Just the greatest questions. And I talked to them about my belief in coming from a place of love because when we understand that the environment is us, we realize that the one thing that all species share is the oxygen that we breathe.

Everything that we do and say and think shapes our reality. I talked to the students about that and kind of applied it in daily life. I was really encouraged by that to see 131 that these students really want to help bring our earth and our society as the place that it's meant to be.

Julia, that must have been an incredible experience for you and the students.

Well I hope it was for them. It absolutely was for me. I spend so much time talking that it's a lot of fun when I get to hear what other people have to say. And when I get to hear where their thoughts and their hearts are, I encourage them to follow those paths, and the one thing I really try to impress upon all of the students is that I want them to follow their heart and their spirits, to find their passion. Find what incites the excitement in them and give one hundred percent.

June 15, 1999:

I have been working with the inner city schools, and inner city organizations, and utilizing watersheds as a way to awaken people, even there in the depths of a concrete and steel jungle, to realize that they, too, are a part of a watershed.

Watersheds define this space we all live in and interact in. I believe people need to become more aware of our actual true homes and how we interact there.

IV.2.b Love, Respect for All Life, and the Power of Prayer

All the points of Julia's biography come together within the themes of

"Love, Respect for All Life, and the Power of Prayer." Beginning with Julia's very religious parents and her somewhat itinerant upbringing, through her epiphany following the car accident 132

Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote eloquently about the power of love in the area of social reform. King credits Ghandi with opening his eyes to the fact that the ethics of Jesus" were effective not only in individual relationships. King (1958) concluded that Ghandi saw love was a potent instrument for social and collective transformation. King credits Ghandi's emphasis on love and nonviolence as inspiration for his action.

Love and nonviolence have long been important to counter-culture values as well. These values are often manifested in taking a stand for one's beliefs. The actions of Ghandi, King, and Butterfly provide a layer of spirituality in addition to taking a stand for one's beliefs through the medium of direct action.

Julia said, on July 9, 1998:

I spoke one day with an independent logger, just a family kind of person who logs and I really impressed upon him the desire that he get back in contact with me, because his concerns are important to me. Everyone's concerns are important to me, but ultimately we have to find a sustainable and beautiful way to take care of all of the needs and not destroy everything in the process.

Julia's nonviolent direct action recalls much of the interaction between biography and history experienced by King, who wrote that violence, as a way of achieving justice, is both impractical and immoral. He described the impractical side 133 of violence as "destruction for all," and the immorality of violence as "thriving on hatred rather than love." (King, 1958) In an eerily prophetic plea just a few weeks prior to the death of David Gypsy Chain, Julia condemned the violence that was about to occur.

In Julia's words, on August 13, 1998:

Ultimately there are ways to work through our problems that don't include violence.

Violence in not okay on any level. People need to understand that even if they don't agree with others, violence is not the way to come to understand with each other.

As my friendship with Julia continues to grow, I become increasingly aware of the deep, essence of her being. It is so simple. If we want to really look around to find something we all share on the planet, we must start our consideration with the air that we all breathe. It is the spiritual link that connects us one to the other.

In Julia's words, on November 17, 1998:

Well, you know the one thing I think is magnificent, is that a breath, what it takes each one of us to take a breath in and let a breath out, ties us all together. It is beautiful and magical. So as long as we all have breath, we have hope. And when we have hope to do things the right way, we help each other. So, there is lots of love, and thank you, as always.

Thank you Julia, I'll talk to you next week. 134

Universal solidarity can be heard in our conversations at times other than when we directly talked about events occurring in other parts of the world. The common bond in all of life is the environment that we share. It is not just human solidarity Julia embraces, but a love and respect for all of life.

December 15, 1998:

What do you hope that people in other countries, or even in fact in this country, perhaps in other states, gain from listening to you?

It is that the one thing we all share is our environment, whether in India or in

Indiana, or in Arcata, that we all share our environment. We all share the same air and the water and land, it is all shared. And we have been led to believe that private property is allowed to own things. Our environment gave us the most amazing gift.

Creation gave us the most amazing gift when we were given life, and the only thing it asked in return was respect for that gift. We are coming up on the holiday season where gifts are kind of a focus for a lot of people, and we place more respect and attention on the gifts of Christmas time than we do on the gift of life. And the only

request that is given us is to respect the gift.

January 26, 1999:

I know that many people, including myself were very concerned this

weekend when we heard that a young man known as Bird, another tree sitter, fell 135 one hundred feet and miraculously survived that fall. Julia, you've been up there four hundred and fourteen days, and 1 know that prayer is very important to you, can you talk to us for a few minutes about the power of prayer in your life?

Prayer is how we can help manifest our focus. What we focus on is what we manifest in our lives, and so if we focus our prayers on positive love and light and healing and respect and compassion and all of these things that are very important in our lives that we will literally help manifest that. The prayer I have every day, every moment of every day, is that I be guided in the best way possible, that my actions, and my words and my very thoughts always be based in love, and that when I stray from that love, I center back in it as quickly as I can. And I'm very human. I make a lot of mistakes, and I'm not perfect, but I know that I am striving for perfection, and one of the ways I do that is through my prayers. And not that I will ever be perfect, but that if I don't strive for perfection I can never be the best person I can be.

February 2, 1999:

Well, I'm awfully glad that you've got something warm, because it does sound cold, and kind of scary up there today. 1 know that we've talked in the past about feelings of safety, and you've always assured me that you feel safe there. Do you feel safe right now?

Yes. I just pray. You know, we were talking about prayer last week, and I always pray. I ask for strength, protection, guidance, and help, and it's always there. When the helicopter was hovering right above my head, I definitely did not feel safe, but 136 this time around, it's not getting close like that again. They're not putting my life in danger like they did last year, and the storms have not been as fierce as last year, and I think I'm a little more seasoned this time around. I just continue to laugh because it's very healing for me, and I continue to pray, and it always helps me every moment of every day.

April 20, 1999:

Hello Geraldine. Here we are again.

Yes, one more week. When are you going to come down?

I still don't know. I'm still taking it day by day and prayer by prayer. It's amazing how quickly time is flying, though. It seems like just yesterday when last we spoke, and here it is another week. Part V: Conclusion

In giving up her society world self, Julia herself has become a consumable

product of the society world. She laughed at that fact the day we talked about the computer-generated makeup she was "wearing" in the two photographs in Rolling

Stone Magazine last month.

In Julia's words, on July 6, 1999:

It is amazing we as consumers, even if we are photograph consumers or magazine

consumers, we don't realize how much altering and editing they do. It is kind of a

reminder that we need to question what we hear and what we see in the media,

because they are actually there to sell a product. I have had to learn to allow myself

to be almost like a product in order to get the message out. So in magazines like

Rolling Stone, they look at me like a product, and they touched up those

photographs to make me a more consumable product.

That is an interesting aspect of our postmodern world.

It really is. It is kind of hard for me, because I don't look nearly that good. "You

guys are going to make this really hard for me." I am going to come down on the

ground and everybody is going to be disappointed, "Go back up and don't come

back down until you have makeup on young lady!"

I don't think there is anybody that is going to say that.

137 138 V.1 Significance

The authentic chronology of Julia's life in the tree and the raw, honest emotion revealed through the radio interviews are two vital aspects of the significance of my work: the audio cassette recordings and the transcribed text of the Julia Butterfly Tapes. Local author Ray Raphael is currently writing Julia's book. Ray has already read the entire transcripts of the Julia Butterfly Tapes. Both he and Julia have told me that the transcripts are invaluable to the creation of the narrative for Julia's book.

C. Wright Mills spoke of being charmed by unexpected results of some activities of everyday life, and I am, too. The unexpected results of the

"Conversations with Julia Butterfly" include this culminating experience for my

Master's degree in Sociology. In addition and simultaneously with the completion of this research, the time has arrived for Julia's story to be written.

On July 5, 1999, Ray and his wife Marie visited me at my home. They spent a couple of hours in my backyard, reading the transcripts of the Julia Butterfly

Tapes. Ray then asked my permission to go to Kinko's and photocopy the material.

Of course I gave my permission.

Although Ray has extensively interviewed Julia several times and has many

pages of transcribed material, the book's editor is convinced that the narrative be

from a chronological perspective. My transcribed "Conversations with Julia

Butterfly" provide longitudinal, qualitative interviews for the book Ray is writing. 139 In Cash Crop, Ray found that the marijuana industry in California to be the creation of an idealistic social movement, which has been inadvertently transformed by its own actions. (p.6) I draw the same conclusion from my "Conversations with

Julia Butterfly." Through her historic tree sit and by her very articulate and eloquent actions, the movement to save the ancient redwood trees has been transformed.

People around the world have heard of and learned from Julia's action.

I have accomplished what I set out to do, and that is to present a data set that is unique in the entire world, and to present that data in a meaningful and sociological manner. The Julia Butterfly Tapes are already well on their way to supplement current interviews. It is still quite remarkable to me that I continue to talk on-air with Julia every week, that the conversations have been recorded and transcribed, that this thesis has been written, and that the collected transcripts of the

"Conversations with Julia Butterfly" are in themselves, already useful to society.

V.2 Opportunities for Further Sociological Inquiry:

The Feminist, Communitarian Ethical System and an exploration of Deep

Ecology are two themes that are easy to identify throughout the conversations. Of course there are as many themes as there are sociologists willing to stretch their own sociological imagination. 140 V.2.a The Feminist, Communitarian Ethical System

The feminist, communitarian ethical system employs a communicative, care- based ethic that presumes a dialogical view of the self, in which the connectedness between people is recognized. There are so many instances in the conversations in which Julia espouses that ethic and the interconnectedness of all life. As an example of this way of thinking, the "Conversations with Julia Butterfly" portray the value of individual personal expressiveness and uniqueness. The tapes are provide a conversational, interactional example on this postpragmatist system, where

understanding based on shared emotional experience is the "basis for this discourse,

which takes as a given universal moral respect for every individual." (p.277)

June 22, 1999:

Julia can you expand on what you mean by our connection to the earth?

Sure, I look at the forest issues and all of the issues as symptoms. They are

symptoms of disease that I call separation syndrome. When you rip a plant's roots

out of it's connection to the air, to the water, to the surrounding ecosystem, to the

microorganisms in the soil, the plant begins to get sick and then die. We are

absolutely connected with the earth. To say that we are not would mean that we

could destroy the earth and still survive. Of course we can't. To say that we are

greater than the trees means that we could cut them all down and still survive, to say

that we are greater than each other, would mean that we could kill each other and

still survive. Life is about that symbiotic balance of interaction and connection and 141 living healthily and respectfully and connected. When you feel connected to something, you cherish it, you protect it, you take care of it. In today's society of sport utility vehicles and all of these other things, you see many people being more connected to their cars than they are to their surrounding environment that gives them life. You know people will wash the car every week, and they check all of their hoses and replace all of the fluids, you know they are totally connected to this car. What I want and what I am trying to do is help people feel that same connection for the earth that gives us life. If we hurt anything in life, we are hurting the whole.

Everything, whether we like it or not is connected. Anytime we help something or someone we are helping the whole. That is what my life is about.

July 27, 1999:

Julia, you have been in that tree over six hundred days, do you have any thoughts for us in the last moments of the program today.

I was thinking about that earlier, when I was climbing around on Luna, and I just began to cry. I continuously marvel at the beauty of this tree, at the special and uniqueness that these trees and forests are to our world. This tree is over a thousand years old and my six hundred days is not even enough of a gift for me to give to try to protect these sentient beings. What is six hundred days compared to over a thousand years? It just reaffirmed my resolve, that I am not going to give up, that I am not going to back away, that I am going to keep doing everything in my power and giving it day by day and prayer by prayer to protect these priceless beings. 142 V.2.b On the topic of Deep Ecology

An exploration of the ecological self can be done through interpretation of the Julia Butterfly Tapes. Julia integrates her relationships with others in society, as well as with bioregions and native plants and animals. Judi Bari wrote about deep ecology, defining it by saying that "all species have a right to exist for their own sake, regardless of their usefulness to humans." ( p.104)

Author Bill Devall calls for a paradigm shift of comparable significance, but he warns, "Before changing paradigms or political ideologies or social institutions, it seems to me, we must change the way we experience life." (p.37) Julia provides some excellent ideas on ways to begin that process of change.

Julia said, on July 9, 1998:

There are radios out there that can be hand-cranked, that don't require batteries, which I think is phenomenal. You crank them for thirty seconds to a minute and then they put out about thirty minutes of airtime. I am really interested in finding more out about that. That really is in line with what I am trying to do. I really want to live what I am talking about. I really want to make sure that I do not over- consume. I am very careful about every decision I make, including my actions and my words and my thoughts. This radio sounds really interesting.

It sounds like that radio was just made for you.

Made for all of us. 143 January 19, 1999:

It must be very difficult for folks like yourself and other activists like Bird and Lily, to be so outspoken and, for lack of a better way to put it, literally and figuratively, out on a limb. You know what I mean? Society doesn't really support the individual thinker so much and that's my concern.

Well, ultimately you know that around the world and even in this country, people understand that destroying the old growth is wrong. A majority of people understand that cutting down the old growth is horrifyingly and vitally wrong, and yet now we have to bring it to the next step of people being willing to go past just saying it's wrong, to helping to do something about it. Lily is one of the few people

I've actually met face-to-face, and she is a beautiful, kind, intelligent woman. When

I spoke to her she was still in school, and she had come to visit, and she said "Julia I just know that I've got to do something, too. We can't let these ancient ones fall in disgrace, we've got to do everything in our power to preserve their lives." And she's doing it. She's following her heart, and her mind and her spirit. And that lets her know we all must do everything in our power to preserve what's left. Love really gives us the strength and the power to not stop and not be overwhelmed, and to keep standing for what we believe in.

V.3 Final Thoughts

Although my thesis work is now complete, the "Conversations with Julia

Butterfly," as an ongoing live radio account of one woman's authentic experience of 144 direct action in a tree sit continues. My hope is to continue my weekly conversations with Julia as long as she is in the tree and maybe longer. I have enjoyed exploring the meaning of postmodern ethnography via radio conversations. Denzin notes that in addition to the existence of ethnographies in various technological media such as radio, film and television, "ethnographic texts circulate like other commodities in the electronic world economy." (xiii) I already imagine the text of our conversations available on the internet.

Theories of social change, heroic behavior, and environmental organizations are only some of the areas in which further interpretation of the Julia Butterfly

Tapes may be applied. Feminist standpoint theory, conversational analysis, cultural analysis, reflexive sociology and cognitive sociology are other theoretical positions to be explored through the tapes.

The Julia Butterfly Tapes provide further applications for my own personal

learning, which include, in the future, an in-depth radio documentary based on the conversations, as well as a play. The original cassette tapes really should be

archived as well, to highlight the anecdotal sounds heard so distinctly in the tapes,

but unnoticed in the written transcripts. An index of all topics discussed in the

conversations would be useful, too. I also have plans to develop a web site with this

material and to publish my account. Notes

1. As of this writing, the "Conversations with Julia Butterfly" continue to occur

every Tuesday on the KHSU Home Page. I expect the conversations to continue

at least as long as Julia remains in Luna, and maybe even after she comes down.

2. I originally hosted the KHSU Home Page on Thursdays. Beginning in

September of 1998, at the request of KHSU management, Julia and I moved to

the Tuesday Home Page. Nothing was changed in our interactions.

145 References

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Thomas, W. I. and Florian Znaniecki, 1993. Disorganization of the Polish Immigrant. Pp. 267-274 in Social Theory: the Multicultural and Classic Readings, ed. Charles Lemert. Boulder: Westview Press.

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