Human beings are the most complicated creatures in the universe. We all have different wishes and different taste for adventures. Most people have got to make decisions that is beyond a normal human imagination. Some people have the ambition of living in other planets, some wish they could continue their life living under sea or oceans, others on tree tops. However, as it has turned out, some of these wishes have actually been realized for many.
Below are some people that have made tree their permanent abode.
Photo credit: khsu.org
In
1997, Julia Butterfly Hill climbed to the top of a 1,000-year-old
redwood tree that was 55 meters tall (180 ft). She climbed that
treacherous height to tree-sit for one week to protest the clear-cutting
of an ancient redwood forest.
It ended up being 738 days
before she touched ground again. She remained in that tree despite
terrifying storms and constant harassment from helicopters, loggers, and
security guards sent by the Pacific Lumber Company.
For two
years, she watched in horror as the forest surrounding her treetop
dwelling was destroyed. Clear-cutting is the fastest and cheapest way to
harvest timber. Once a tree is chopped down, the area is burned with
napalm and sprayed with herbicides. Afterward, the tree is replanted,
but environmental scientists agree that this practice permanently
damages the area.
Hill said, “It’s like sitting there and
watching your family killed. You listen for hours . . . a high-pitched
screaming that goes right through your body. And when they stop the
chainsaws and pound the wedges, you can feel it.”
Many people
do not know that the ancient redwoods are not protected. Through her
civil disobedience, Julia Butterfly Hill inspired activists around the
world.
Hill finally came down after the Pacific Lumber Company
agreed to preserve 61 meters (200 ft) of the old-growth forest around
the tree’s perimeter. In exchange, the logging company received $50,000
that had been raised by Hill’s supporters.
Luxurious Tree House Community
Photo credit: costarica.org
In
the heart of the Costa Rican rain forest lies 600 pristine acres with
40 solar-powered tree houses. Finca Bellavista is Shangri-La suspended
in the trees.
It began with Matt Hogan and Erica Andrews
saving that plot of land from being harvested for its timber. From
there, an eco-conscious community was born for the young at heart. Hogan
sa, “You’re completely immersed in nature, you go to bed listening to
the bugs and the frogs, and you wake up with birdsong.”
The
homes are all built among the trees. Some exist on stilts of locally
grown teak, and others use the trees as anchors. The most impressive,
however, are fully arboreal homes built above the oldest trees with the
deepest root systems. The on-site botanist needs to approve these, of
course. El Castillo Mastate was approved, and now it stands 27 meters
(90 ft) aboveground.
Finca Bellavista prides itself on being
“the world’s first planned, sustainable tree house development.” The
tree houses are only accessible through an intricate series of zip
lines, suspension bridges, and a lengthy system of hiking trails. While
some may complain about the mosquitoes and the difficulties of being off
the grid, others are intrigued by this rapidly growing industry of
luxury tree house living.
Self-Reliant Nick Weston
Photo credit: newstatesman.com
By
2050, 66 percent of the world’s population is predicted to reside in
cities. For some, city life just isn’t a fulfilling way to live. Nick
Weston wrote, “I took stock of my London lifestyle and decided a change
was in order.”
He was fed up working at a job he despised and
paying sky-high prices for food and rent. He had the wild dream of being
self-reliant and living more in tandem with nature. So he began work on
a project that was more closely aligned with his values.
Weston
resided in the woods of Ashdown Forrest for six months. His survival
depended on gathering some staple herbs and hunting rabbit, pigeon, and
eel. Atop an English oak, he constructed a one-bedroom tree house
complete with all-natural, recycled materials (most of which he found
dumpster-diving).
He even had a wood-burning stove that he
made from a 208-liter (55 gal) steel drum. Weston said, “The tree house
was a symbol for rekindling the spirit of the child within, recapturing
the days when there were few worries, and anything seemed possible.”
Weston’s
tiny tree house living may be part of a larger movement of youth that
is renouncing material success and looking toward experiences for
fulfillment.
Tree House Villages In The Forests Of Germany
For
six consecutive years, there’s been a small tree house village in the
Hambach Forest near the German-Belgian border. The forest is 12,000
years old, and it’s being eradicated because of coal mining.
The
forest was bought by RWE, a powerful energy company, in the late 1970s.
Since then, 90 percent of the Hambach Forest has been cut down. It used
to be the size of Manhattan.
Activists have been trying to
fight RWE. Their protest camp consists of dozens of connected tree house
villages with affectionate names like “Lazytown” and “Cozytown.” The
tree houses may appear rudimentary. But they are actually very effective
and provide a communal atmosphere.
Most of the tree houses
run on solar electricity and even have Internet. Furthermore, they are
only accessible by rope and ladder so that RWE cannot cut down the
trees. They have occupied the treetops since 2012 and use the tree
houses as “living barricades.”
Sadly, in September 2018, the
camp began to be forcibly dismantled and people were evicted from their
beloved tree homes. Eviction was halted, however, when journalist
Steffen Meyn fell from a suspension bridge and died. The fate of the
tree-sitters and the Hambach Forest hangs precariously in the balance.
Lumberjack Jim Allen
Photo credit: interestingengineering.com
In
the 1930s, Jim Allen, a lumberjack by trade, found himself alone in the
redwood forest of California during a turbulent storm. He managed to
take refuge by hiding in the burned-out trunk of a giant redwood.
He
was overwhelmed with gratitude for the tree’s protection. He figured
that no house could be as good as the genuine thing. So he purchased a
fallen tree from the local lumber company and set out to carve out his
home from the source.
The tree was 4 meters (14 ft) wide at
the stump and 81 meters (267 ft) tall. With the help of one other man,
Allen hand-carved a three-room home and lived there for seven years.
From
the outside, it looks just like a felled tree. Inside, it’s as cozy as
can be. They sanded down the interior walls by hand and used a clear
varnish to emphasize the redwood’s natural grain. Power was even
installed in the 1940s, and a fridge was added.
Allen’s
Original Redwood Log House is much the same as it always was. It resides
along the highway as a tourist attraction in the small town of
Garberville in Northern California. For a small fee, you can walk
through Jim Allen’s masterpiece.
Barefoot Nomad Mick Dodge
Mick
Dodge has been living off the grid for almost 30 years in the Hoh Rain
Forest of the Pacific Northwest. Dodge lives inside a variety of mossy
tree stumps as he wanders around. He says, “There’s not a better bedroom
in the world!” And he never dreams of a normal life.
He wakes
up every morning and forages for his breakfast. He’s also a scavenger.
So he’ll eat roadkill or an elk killed by a mountain lion, for example. A
lot of his free time is spent reading. If he likes the book, he’ll
plant a tree and share the book. If he doesn’t believe in its value,
he’ll plant a tree anyway. But he’ll use the book as toilet paper or
fire starter.
He calls himself a “barefoot nomad” because he
doesn’t wear shoes. His feet are covered in intricate tattoos of a root
system. He says, “My feet became my map. My feet became my compass. When
you step out of your shoes, your senses come more online. You’ve got
over 200,000 nerves in the feet.”
Although it took a lot of convincing, he agreed to have his lifestyle filmed for National Geographic in a show called “The Legend of Mick Dodge.” When he’s asked what people will think of him after the show airs, he replies, “I have no
