This battle continues, ripping and tearing throughout the entire forest. The rolling hills of trees are disappearing. They are being replaced with rolling hills of mud. Huge mudslides crash into houses covering parts of towns and even killing people. Something must be done; if this continues there will soon be no forest left.

The sad truth is that logging has destroyed 96 percent of the old forests that used to stretch from southern Oregon all the way down the Pacific coast to Big Sur, California. The Headwaters Forest is made up of the six groves of ancient Redwoods that are left. They are owned by the Pacific Lumber/Maxxam company, who wants to cut down the forests and sell the wood to pay off their debt.

You may want to blame just the logging company for cutting down all of the trees, but we also have to look in the mirror. The logging companies cut down trees so they can make things for people like us. We use that wood ourselves to make paper, furniture, houses, and other things. We should be careful not to use too much of it. Then they won't cut down as much.

Many people all over the world try to make a difference by protecting the environment in different ways. One group is called Earth First. They try to prevent bed things happening to the environment. They protect the Earth environment because our entire planet is really a living organism. Humans are just a part of it.

Earth First decided to prevent a logging company from cutting down trees in the Headlands Forest. They organized "tree sits." This means that people sit in little tree houses, so that nobody can cut the tree down. One person who became famous for a tree sit is Julia Butterfly Hill.

Julia was once a businesswoman from Arkansas. She wanted to make lots of money and be very successful. But she got into a bad accident one day that kept her in bed for a year. During that time she did a lot of thinking about her life. She realized that money was not as important as she had thought it was. When she was better, she decided to become more involved with protecting the redwoods.

Julia volunteered to do a tree sit. She thought she would go up for a couple weeks, and the tree would be saved. She was wrong. She had to stay up in that tree for over two years before it was protected! It was definitely worth, though. She became very famous all over the world. The tree became famous too. It's name is Luna, and people all over learned its name. People saw how important it was to protect the environment because of Julia Butterfly Hill sitting on top of Luna. She helped educate many people about what was going on with the environment. Reporters talked to her, environmentalists talked to her, even Hollywood celebrities talked to her. She has even been called the "Rosa Parks of the environmental movement."

Julia Butterfly Hill shows how an individual can make a real difference in the world. She has woken people up all across the world to preserving the environment. But there is still much work to be done, everywhere. One thing that every individual can do no matter the age or condition is to be conscious about what you spend your money on and the products you consume. Don't waste them!

Nick

Please email me at: nick@ustrek.org