Calif. Tree-Sit Redwood Hit By Chainsaw

S A N   F R A N C I S C O, Nov. 29 -- A chainsaw-wielding vandalhas hacked a deep, potentially fatal gash in the base of a1,000-year-old Redwood tree where environmental activist JuliaButterfly Hill staged her two-year “tree sit” protest againstlogging, an environmental group said Tuesday.

The Circle of Light Foundation, which has campaigned alongwith Hill to save the 200-foot tree she dubbed “Luna”,said the damage was spotted over the weekend by visitors tonorthern California’s Humboldt County.

“The perpetrator made one deep and precise cut that wentthrough a significant portion of the tree,” the foundation saidin a news release.

Hill ‘Shocked’ by Attack

“While the tree is still alive and standing, Luna isextremely vulnerable to a windstorm. Judging from the precisionof the cut and the fresh sawdust, the criminal action appears tohave been committed by an experienced treefeller within the lastfew days.”

With a storm bearing down on the region, arborists andforesters worked into the evening Tuesday to shore up thestately tree, which has been deemed too precarious to climbbecause of the damage it suffered.

Luna, which became a global cause célèbre during Hill’sprotest, now has a 32-inch wide cut stretching some 19 feetacross half of its massive base.

Hill, who has continued to campaign on behalf of theRedwoods, said she was shocked by the assault.

“I feel this vicious attack on Luna as surely as if the chainsaw was going right through me,” she said in a statement.

Foundation spokeswoman Dawn Griffin said Tuesday that ateam of experts was being assembled to look at the damage, withan arborist, an engineer, and a forester slated to come up withstrategies for saving the giant tree.

Cut Across 60 Percent of Trunk

“The tree is not dead, but we need to find out how to protecther so she can be given the best chance of survival,” Griffinsaid.