738 Days Aloft
Through an El Niño winter of brutal storms, a company helicopter downdraft, floodlights, a siege, loneliness and a media circus, Julia lived on the platform — cooking on a single burner, doing interviews by mobile phone, becoming the global face of the redwoods.
Part of Julia Butterfly Hill
3 moments in this segment.
- — The El Niño storms (winter 1997–98). Julia survives one of the worst El Niño winters on record — 40-mph winds, freezing rain and storms that nearly tore her from the tree. She lashes herself to Luna and refuses to come down.
- — The forest from above. The Headwaters Forest — the wider ecosystem a single saved tree, Luna, came to stand for. The subject dates from 1998; this photograph was taken in 2016.
- — The face of the redwoods. As months stretched on, Julia became a global symbol — interviewed worldwide, visited by celebrities and journalists, turning a single tree into the centre of the fight for the ancient forests.
