Police surround a threatened 250-year-old
chestnut tree, occupied by tree sitters
(PA/EMPICS)
Tree Sitting
(From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)
Tree sitting is a form of environmentalist civil disobedience
in which a protester sits in a tree, usually on a small platform
built for the purpose, to protect it from being cut down (speculating
that loggers will not endanger human lives by cutting an occupied
tree). Supporters usually provide the tree sitters with food and
other necessary supplies.
Tree sitters have successfully prevented logging of ancient old
growth forests for months at a time, and in some instances have
convinced logging companies not to cut trees in some areas. Sometimes,
tree sitting is used as a long-term resistance strategy, with
activists occupying trees for months or years at a time. On the
other hand, tree sitting is often used as a stalling tactic, to
prevent the cutting of trees while lawyers fight in the courts
to secure the long-term victories.
When tree sitting occurs on private land, it is trespassing.
Sometimes logging companies will hire tree climbers to remove
trespassers sitting in trees. Although it is the companies' legal
right to do so, the tree climbers occasionally cause harm to the
sitters that resist efforts to end their trespassing, and in at
least one case it has resulted in death. Most tree sitting in
California occurs on private land. In Oregon, where there are
more logging projects on public land (National Forests and BLM
(Bureau of Land Management) lands), tree sitting is usually not
trespassing but tree sitters can be fined for violating closure
orders or camping limits, or for erecting illegal structures.
Julia Butterfly Hill, an activist in Humboldt County, California,
is perhaps the most famous tree sitter. She became known for her
738-day sit (from December 10, 1997 until December 18, 1999) in
a 180-foot, 600-year-old Coast Redwood tree, which she named Luna.
Eventually, Hill and other activists raised money and paid Pacific
Lumber $50,000 to spare her tree and a 200-foot buffer around
it, something which some activists considered an unacceptable
compromise.
Activists from Greenpeace and the Australian environmental organisation
the Wilderness Society hold the record for the world's highest
tree sit, in the Styx Valley, Tasmania.
In 2002, two US environmental activists involved in tree-sitting
protests died in separate accidents. Some elected officials, lumber
companies, and advocates of property rights claim tree sitting
is a form of eco-terrorism or ecotage.
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