On December 10, 1997, Julia Butterfly Hill ascended Luna, an ancient Redwood near Stafford in Humboldt County. While not the first tree-sitter, she stayed in the tree for two years and brought national media attention to the movement. Following this, many tree sitters came from the East Coast.

Julia Butterfly Hill and Pacific Lumber reached an agreement to save the tree and a 200 feet buffer zone around it for $50,000 after which Hill left the tree.

Later Julia wrote a book called The Legacy of Luna about her experiences tree-sitting in the giant redwood.

In November 2000, Luna was vandalized anonymously. The next year, civil engineer Steve Salzman headed Luna’s “medical team” which designed and built a bracing system to help the tree withstand the extreme windstorms with peak winds between 60 and 100 miles per hour.

Luna is currently under the stewardship of the Humboldt based nonprofit Sanctuary Forest.