Hill stayed put, disappointed that the deal does not go far enough to protect the forest and concerned that Luna is not in the protected area. I can't imagine how incredible and magical it's going to feel just to be able to touch the solid earth again,'' she said. On a cool fall day, the forest Hill calls home soars above the mists, thousands of dark green spires brushing against a pale gray sky. To the west, the Pacific hugs the sandy shoulders of the remote Lost Coast, about 280 miles north of San Francisco. Also visible is the red-brown scar of a mudslide that destroyed seven homes in the small community of Stafford.
Activists blame the slide on clear-cut logging.
The company says it was a natural occurrence. At Luna's base, the only sound is the rushing murmur of the wind. About 15 feet across and more than 18 stories high, the tree is a vast, brown stretch of bark, one side of its trunk blackened and gouged, probably by fire. My phone's ringing. In spare moments she reads, writes and listens to a community radio station by way of a hand-cranked radio.