In The Legacy of Luna: The Story of a Tree, a Woman, and the Struggle to Save the Redwoods, Julia Butterfly Hill recounts her experience of living on Luna, a Redwood tree, for two years to save it from logging. Perched over 100 feet above the ground on Luna, Hill has a bird’s eye view of the Redwood forest and the devastation caused by logging. Her tree-sit ends after an agreement is successfully negotiated that will save Luna and some of the surrounding trees.

This is a quick and easy read. The prose is straightforward and unadorned. It is not particularly well-written although there was the occasional smattering of inspirational wisdom. Hill describes how she learned to adapt her platform on a tree to meet her needs for food, shelter, and routine bodily functions. She interacts with loggers, heads of corporations, the media, popular entertainment figures, and government officials as she gradually becomes a savvy advocate for saving the Redwoods. She survives snow storms, hail, blizzards, lightning, freezing temperatures, a terrifyingly close encounter with a hovering helicopter, and the napalming of the surrounding denuded areas.

Hill develops almost a symbiotic relationship with Luna. She becomes increasingly comfortable in her habitat, learns to “read” the grooves, gnarls, twists, and growths on Luna’s bark, and recognizes which of her branches will cradle and protect her. Her familiarity with Luna emboldens her to climb to the very top branches in her bare feet and with nothing to protect her. She befriends animals, feeding squirrels and allowing insects to crawl on her limbs as if she were an extension of Luna.

Governed by her spirituality and strengthening her resolve through prayer, Julia Butterfly Hill took a courageous step to save the Redwoods. But her tree-sit in was about more than saving trees. It was about the interconnectedness of all living things; the decimation of animal habitats; the deforestation that leads to devastating mudslides, destruction of property, and even loss of human life. Her commitment serves as a potent reminder of the intricate web that connects all living things and the importance of preserving and protecting our environment.

Recommended.

I really enjoyed this! An incredible story of a wildly passionate environmentalist, Julia, and her connection to a redwood tree named Luna. This book gives you insight into real scenarios of just one of the many battles that the environment has against humans. Would recommend to anyone passionate about the environment or just wants to hear about how someone survived at the top of a 200 ft tree for two years!

All in all, it's a beautiful story. Hill is not originally a writer, but if you take the book as a deeply personal memoir and admire the message rather than the craft, it can be seen in a more admirable lens.
The political aspect of the book is a little heavy, mainly because it doesn't mesh well with what makes the book special, which is the fact that it is about a powerful and moving experience that can only be told by Hill herself. I know that it's necessary to frame Hill's tree-sit in a wider context, but the dense writing doesn't go well with the free-flowing style Hill writes in when she talks about her life in Luna. Maybe this is a result of her writing inexperience; I don't know.
If you remember that there's never one correct opinion in politics, you can also remember there's never one correct opinion about a book. But we do know all experiences and most opinions are important to listen to, and if you see Hill's work as simply her sharing her incredible experience of life in a tree, we can focus on the value in her story, and how it can relate to the personal/religious/spiritual experiences in our own.

Read for work.
Phenomenal, inspiring, beautiful, touching...... just.... wow. This should be required reading for all people.

This is a very captivating book. I knew nothing about this sort of activism or about the battle for the trees before I read this book. It's a wonderful book that hopefully will inspire change, but I felt a little down after reading it. Where is the justice? Even though the idea of the book is eternal hope and optimism, I finished the book thinking one simple thing; People suck.

"Invece di chiederci se una sola persona può fare la differenza, dovremmo riconoscere che ciascuno di noi fa la differenza"
La storia di Julia Butterfly Hill è davvero ispiratrice, non solo per quanto riguarda l'attivismo ma anche come approccio alla vita, agli altri e al resto del mondo. Mi ha trasmesso grande positività e mi ha regalato un modo diverso di considerare le difficoltà psicologiche fisiche ed ambientali.

"As I looked out, I saw everything we were fighting for and everything we were fighting against in one glance. Far off in the distance lay the Headwaters forests, which were still pristine, and beyond them snow-capped peaks. Closer in, however, lay destruction and horror."
Read "The Legacy of Luna" if for no other reason than to make sense of someone spending 738 days atop a California redwood. I don't know how I overlooked this one (2000).
How did I miss this?
Self-scolded, for missing such a beautiful book.

Of course, I still haven't finished Shakespeare's tragedies. How cool that they're on the shelf next to me waiting to play? One of my favorite O'Brien quotes fits here He's reflecting/grieving over the loss of a childhood sweetheart when he dreams and writes (which is how we must write) in her voice, Linda's voice,

"Well, right now" she said, "I'm not dead. But when I am, it's like... I don't know, it's like being inside a book that nobody's reading."

Tim responds in his dream, "A book?"

And Linda responds (and will always and always respond): An old one. It's up on a library shelf, so you're safe and everything, but the book hasn't been checked out for a long, long time. All you can do is wait. Just hope somebody'll pick it up and start reading."

This book far exceeded my expectations. I cried at least twice due to Hill's lovely writing. I am so grateful for her ability to describe her connection and the miniscule details of Luna. On her last night, I truly felt the weight of her leaving her friend behind and the loss of such a unique perspective of the world. I'm also deeply grateful to the author for her work in preservation, conservation and spreading her general life message, leading in love and understanding always. What a powerhouse of a spirit.

Quick read with a really cool and inspiring story. The writing wasn’t that great, and lacked depth at times. Other than that, save the trees!!!

An incredibly inspiring account of a young activist's 2 years spent tree-sitting in a California redwood and advocating for forestry stewardship. <3

Some of my favorite excerpts:

“These majestic ancient places, which are the holiest of temples, housing more spirituality than any church, were being turned into clear-cuts and mud slides. I had to do something. I didn’t know what that something was, but I knew I couldn’t turn my back and walk away.”

“A clear-cut here and there adds up to much more than the sum of its parts. That’s the importance of cumulative impact. We have to realize that the fragmentation of our planet is affecting the quality of life for everyone and everything. Political and private property boundaries are destroying nature by dividing it up into separate pieces that don’t make any sense. We must find ways to fit our lives into the natural ecosystems and watersheds.”

“My heart went out to these people because they had bought Maxxam’s propaganda, which pitted timber workers against environmentalists and therefore victim against victim. The truth is, both timber workers and environmentalists suffer because of Maxxam’s policies. Pacific Lumber workers did not lose their jobs because of the California Department of Forestry, and they did not lose their jobs because of Earth First!. They lost their jobs because Pacific Lumber/Maxxam had complete disregard for the laws. If Maxxam had continued Pacific Lumber’s tradition of logging in a more sustainable way —instead of instructing Pacific Lumber to operate under a policy of take everything as fast as you can—it would not have accumulated over three hundred violations in three years. It would not have had its license suspended. And the employees would have kept their jobs.”

I had to give up on this one about half-way through. I hope the second half is better for the sake of this book's following, but I doubt it. I consider myself an environmentalist and I just couldn't stand Luna's admitted ignorance about the environment and the issues she is blindly advocating. She takes what could have been an admirable and principled act of defiance and treats is as her personal spiritual awakening. I'll cut my losses and spend my time elsewhere.

"Tree sitting is a last resort. When you see someone in a tree trying to protect it, you know that every level of our society has failed. The consumers have failed, the companies have failed, and the government has failed. Friends of the forests have gone to the courts, activists have tried to make consumers aware, but with no results. Corporations have neglected their responsibility as landowners, while the government has refused to enforce its laws. Everything has failed, so people go into the trees."

Hill is unapologetically "crunchy-granola" throughout her memoir. Whether or not you can appreciate her belief systems (various higher powers, energy vortexes, crystals, etc.) her passion shines through, and you've got no choice but to respect that. I have a hard time rating memoirs, as I wouldn't rave about the writing itself, but the story is important and unique and beautiful. I'm glad I took the time to dig into her story, as it was very enlightening.