Pilgrims
at Grizzly Creek
by John Scull
These
photographs were taken in Grizzly Creek Redwoods State Park
in California in 2004. The pictures are unremarkable but
the location has an important place in the history of the
non-violent struggle for environmental justice and world
peace. The visit to Grizzly Creek was a pilgrimage.
Grizzly Creek is a small park 17 miles from the main highway
and there is little to distinguish it from other parks devoted
to protecting the few remaining coastal redwood trees. It
is beautiful and inspiring, but no more than many other
locations. The park brochure says the Nongatl Indians once
lived there, but were relocated by the U.S. Army. According
to the brochure, “we could have learned much from
a people who lived so long in peaceful coexistence with
each other and in a harmonious relationship with their environment.”
Grizzly Creek is important in more recent history. According
to her autobiographical book The Legacy of Luna,
Julia Butterfly Hill visited Grizzly Creek Park, probably
in 1996. She was recovering from an accident, seeking “a
sense of purpose,” traveling through California with
friends. She felt drawn to the forest and later wrote that
she crossed the road and went for a walk in the woods:
Upon entering the forest, I started walking faster
and faster, and then, feeling this exhilarating energy,
I broke into a run, leaping over logs as I plunged in
deeper.
Among the trees, away from the road, she had one of the
life-changing experiences at the core of ecopsychology or
ecospirituality.
Everywhere I turned, there was life whether I could
see, smell, hear, taste, or touch it or not. For the first
time, I really felt what it was like to be alive, to feel
the connection of all life and its inherent truth –
not the truth that is taught to us by so-called scientists
or politicians or other human beings, but the truth that
exists within creation.
She wrote, “I walked out of the forest a different
woman. I certainly felt a calling, but I had some doubts
about whether or not the calling was true.” She took
her doubts back to nature, hiking near the coast in the
King’s Mountains and praying in this natural setting.
She felt she was called to fight for the forests of California.
“If I had known what was in store, I’m not sure
I would have so readily agreed to follow this urgent call.”
The beginning of her story is in The Legacy of Luna:
The Story of a Tree, a Woman, and the Struggle to Save the
Redwoods (San Francisco: Harper Collins, 2000), Julia’s
account of the 2 years and 8 days she lived in the canopy
of a giant redwood tree. Since coming down from her tree,
Julia has continued to devote herself to non-violent peace,
ecological, and human rights activism. Information about
her continuing work can be found at http://www.circleoflifefoundation.org/.
Linda and I are not as courageous or committed or dynamic
as Julia Butterfly Hill and Grizzly Creek did not inspire
us to risk our lives to protect redwood trees. But both
of us continue to work for peace and social and environmental
justice and both of us continue to find our inspiration
in direct contact with the natural world around us. Inspiring
places like Grizzly Creek can be found everywhere if we
just open ourselves to them. |
