Luna - 17 Months Since Being Cut, and Still Doing Well
by Paul Donahue
Spring 2002
When Julia Butterfly Hill’s tree, Luna, was cut two- thirds of the way through by unknown angry loggers in late November 2000, the prospects for the tree’s survival did not look good. The severity of the chainsaw cut made Luna very susceptible to being toppled by the strong winter winds that can rake the ridge above Stafford, California where she stands, and also endangered the upward transport of essential moisture to the upper foliage during the dry summer months. |
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My wife, Teresa Wood, and I were part of the medical team that went to Luna’s rescue in the days following Thanksgiving 2000, and we were horrified by what we saw when we arrived at her base. Still, we all went ahead with the work, doing the best we could to insure that Luna would make it through the winter. There was nothing that could be done about the water transport problem, but at least we could try to stabilize the tree to help her deal with the winds to come. (That effort is described in “The Cabling of Luna” in the spring 2001 issue of The Maine Woods.) |
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