Missing the Earth 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. What she's missed most is the earth beneath her feet. 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. Monolith of Burnt Bark 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. I'm going to grab it real quick and be right with you. In spare moments she reads, writes and listens to a community radio station by way of a hand-cranked radio.