Activist Julia Hill to Speak on Environmental and Social Justice at FSU

Written by FSU News Service

Sunday, 22 August 2010 11:33

Julia Lorraine Butterfly Hill, an environmentalist, poet, writer, educator and speaker, who lived in a redwood tree for two years to save it, will speak at Frostburg State University on Tuesday, Sept. 14, at 7 p.m. in Pealer Recital Hall of the Performing Arts Center. The talk will be presented as a conversation and will be followed by questions from the audience. A book signing will precede the talk.

Hill, founder of the nonprofit organization Circle of Life, earned international fame as an environmental activist by protecting an old-growth forest in Northern California from clear-cutting by a logging company. To prevent the logging, she lived in one of the trees, a 1,000-year-old redwood that was named Luna, for 738 days until an agreement was reached with the Pacific Lumber Company.

Hill speaks regularly on university campuses, has addressed the United Nations and lobbied Congress, and continues to stand on the front lines of environmental and social justice issues all over the world.

Hill is the author of the national best-seller, "The Legacy of Luna," and the co-author of "One Makes the Difference," both published by Harper Collins.

Hill was the subject of the 2000 documentary Butterfly <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butterfly_(2000_film) and is featured in another documentary, Tree-Sit: The Art of Resistance <http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Tree-Sit:_The_Art_of_Resistan , both chronicling her time in the redwood tree.

Hill is the youngest person ever elected to the Ecology Hall of Fame and was named by John F. Kennedy Jr. in George magazine as one of the 20 most influential women in politics. She lives in Oakland, Calif.

Hill's appearance is sponsored by the Office of the President, Student and Educational Services and the Learning Green, Living Green Committee. The talk is free and open to the public.

For more information on the event, contact Ann Townsell at 301-687-3171 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . For information on the Engage Network, co-founded by Hill, visit www.engagenet.org.

FSU is committed to making all of its programs, services and activities accessible to persons with disabilities. To request accommodations through the ADA Compliance Office, call 301-687-4102 or use a Voice Relay Operator at 1-800-735-2258.

Comments (3)

Every Intelligence agency throughout the world identifies human-caused global climate change as the, single most pressing, threat to civilization. And around here you have a population of nincompoops who don't even believe it exists and will stand there laughing at you if you claim otherwise. Good luck, Julia.

J. D., Ms. Hill's event actually had to turn students away, there was that much interest in her speaking engagement. It gives me hope that students have an interest in Ms. Hill's message. Perhaps many of us have grown older and more jaded, but there is a segment of the younger population that cares about the world and its future and I, for one, find that a bright light in a dark world. Susan Davis

There are plenty of bright lights in this dark world. David C. Korten describes some of them in his more recent books. I'm not jaded. If I were jaded to the possibility of a better world, I wouldn't be doing everything I know to help make it possible.

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