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Associated Press / Posted to FoxNews -- http://www.foxnews.com Logging Activist Celebrates One Year of Living in Tree 12.41 p.m. ET (1741 GMT) December 10, 1998 STAFFORD, Calif. -- It's been one year since Julia Hill last set foot on Earth. On Dec. 10, 1997, the logging activist clambered 180 feet to the top of a redwood she calls Luna to protest a $490 million state-federal deal to purchase 10,000 acres of forest from Pacific Lumber Co. The land, which includes 3,000 acres of ancient redwoods in the nearby Headwaters Forest, would be turned into a public preserve. Hill and other environmental groups want the entire 66,000-acre Headwaters Forest included in the preservation deal. Hill, who calls herself Julia Butterfly, said her treesitting is a protest, in part, against "the government compromising away the health and quality of the environment." Her protest may be a wasted effort. The sale is awaiting approval from the state and federal governments, which put up the money for the purchase. If the deal falls through, Pacific Lumber has vowed to begin logging. Still, Hill, 24, says she will remain at her perch -- a plywood platform about the size of a queen-size bed protected by a tarp. She uses a bucket for a toilet, takes only sponge baths and relies on supplies ferried to her in backpacks from members of Earth First! "When I climbed Luna, I gave my word to her, the forests and all people that I would not allow my feet to touch ground until I felt I had done everything I can," Hill said Wednesday. "I still feel there is more I can accomplish from this perch." Hill's redwood is not in the Headwaters Forest, but is about 10 miles away on Pacific Lumber land near Stafford, about 250 miles north of San Francisco.
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