Julie Prince is a college student at the top of her class and
seems destined for conventional success. But then she falls in love
with Neil, a radical environmental activist and graduate student writing
on the economics of deforestation. At his urging she abandons her
privileged East Coast life to tree-sit in the forests of Oregon. Julie
at first regards the journey as a romantic field trip; soon, though, she
finds herself increasingly moved by the lush magnificence of the
endangered forest and, like Neil, invested in its protection. As Neil
veers towards militant acts of sabotage, Julie is forced to reassess her
loyalties and beliefs: How much damage is done by doing nothing? When
is it wrong to do good to zealously? How can she choose between the boy
she loves and her own sense of righteousness and morality? Exploring
this edge, The Tree-Sitter is a riveting and beautiful novel about learning the price of love and idealism.
Julie
Prince, a year away from graduating from Wesley, accompanies her
boyfriend to Oregon to protest the logging companies by occupying old
growth forests. Her mother thinks she has no business protesting in the
woods and warns her of the risks.
"Surely, you, yourself, wouldn't want to do anything illegal? Not with your bright future."
But
the prospect of being arrested doesn't phase Julie as she's not
thinking of the action part of activist, only the road trip, the trees,
Neil.
'Before the trip... [she'd] never camped, not really.'
Julie
is the produce of an overachieving mother, the daughter of a trust
fun. to her, money is a blanket of security, comfort, ability. Neil,
however, grew up with less affluential means and finds it difficult to
accept her money, even for necessities like food, shelter, and gas for
the long trip west. Julie wants to spend more time on the road trip,
sightseeing, exploring the great American landscape. All too soon they
reach their destination, a little town called Eugene. Their contact is
named Mudman, their driver, once they reach Eugene is named Shaman. No
real names are used, nothing personal, no backgrounds, everything is
supposed to remain anonymous, for safety reasons.
Shaman
drives them as far as he can into the forest before pointing out a
skinny trail that will lead them into the heart of the logging protest.
They've been given a grocery list to carry with them to help keep the
camp in supplies, the 'straps dug uncomfortably into [her]
shoulders...' They finally reach the site and are told to give no info
other than their chosen aliases. Neil chooses River and Julie picks
Emerald, a name she is immediately embarrassed by and regrets. She's
worried they'll get into trouble as they're briefed on the rules.
"If detained, if questioned, know nothing... If taken into custody with another, know nothing about that other..."
They
are told to memorize the number to a pro-bono lawyer should they fall
into police hands. But Julie isn't interested in breaking the law, she
wants to sit in the trees. They have to train,l practice how to use the
ropes correctly, the ropes that will lift them the dizzying height into
the canopy above. The tree's they're protecting are enormously bigger
than she imagined and the prospect of ascending one is terrifying. With
fear and doubt edging in she has no choice but to climb up. At the top
she is horrified. From her vantage point she can see the terrific
damage the clear cutting has done to the mountain face.
'...like
the shaved hide of a lamb. [She] was gripped by the thought of hose
little [the remaining] 1% was, how irrevocable it's loss...'
She
makes their tree fort as homey as she can among the boughs, the lush
foliage thick over their heads. Their time up there is peaceful, she
learns more about Neil, begins to understand his point of view, his zest
for action. She enjoys her experience. Time ceases to exist as it
once had, priorities shift into place that far lost in nature. She
begins to realize that what they're doing is important, worthy. Their
stillness is ruined by loggers. They swarm at the bass of the tree and
hurl insults upwards, cursing and throwing profanities at the
tree-sitters above. She is repulsed and a little frightened by them.
'Was
it selfish to love my one little life and want to cling to it?
Compared to death or injury at the hands of the company, arrest suddenly
seemed a petty thing... Rage suddenly played a role in what [she]
believed. [She] had met the enemy.'
They leave the
shelter of the tree shortly after and Neil begins to take an interest in
other plans. She's warned not to ask too many questions being told
it's better not to know too much. But she is determined to stay with
Neil and agrees to go back with him to Eugene. There she finds out
about his secret plans to sabotage the local lumber company and demands
to be given a role.
She agrees to apply for a job at
the local logging office as a temp for the summer. It starts off as a
simple scouting mission, but she's offered the job on the spot. She
decides to take the job as an opportunity to disclose inside information
about the company. The others are impressed and so begins her job as a
mole. She collects lots of information over the few short months she
works there and is shocked to find herself torn between her repulsion at
the company's intense interest in profit and the fact that the office
workers are all nice, polite, normal people who happened to be employed
by the company. She never knows the difference her information makes to
the protesters but she asks they leave the office alone.
"You know we can't promise that," Neil tells her.
The
night of her 21st birthday she finds out that Neil is planning on
setting a bomb at the local SUV dealership. They believe it'll send a
message to the gas-guzzling families to stop buying vehicles that ruin
the environment.
'If people bought SUV's to feel... safer... [they wanted to challenge] that illusion.'
The
bomb doesn't go off in the middle of the night like they hoped, instead
it explodes the next morning. One man is seriously hurt. Julie is
outraged. Neil had told her no one would get hurt.
They're
afraid to get caught for the crime and agree to leave town. Julie is
only partially sad at leaving the group as they make their way further
west to the coast, presumably to finish their road trip. Neil tells her
he's going back, back to Eugene, back to the trees.
"Go back and work in the movement," she tells him. "But why do you think that being an activist means becoming a terrorist?"
His
arguments are simple and evasive. She realizes he won't change his
mind. It turns into a moment where she has to make her own decision:
return to real life, or go back to the trees with him.
The
Tree-Sitter is an unassuming novel that won't let you put it down once
you start. It's relevant message can be enjoyed by all, whether you
love the trees, are an activist, or not. It compares daily life with
the life of the wild, showing the reader the underbelly of logging and
activists. It makes no demands of the reader to change in any way, but
you'll feel differently about the environment and our modern way of life
once it's finished.
Click here to purchase The Tree-Sitter.
