At the age of 16, Julia Butterfly Hill quit school and worked at a restaurant. For many years, she was only interested in making money and material things. Then one day she had a serious car accident, which changed her life. Hill said: "I realized I wanted to find a more powerful purpose for being here on this planet." As soon as she recovered, Hill traveled to California. There she saw ancient redwood trees, which are the largest trees in the whole world. The wood from redwood trunks is very hard. So the Pacific Lumber Company cut down many of the huge redwoods to use for construction. There are not many forests of these trees left. Many environmental activists want to protect the remaining trees. The redwoods are very important to the environment. In 1997 Hill learned a group called Earth First was working to protect a particular group of trees. They decided to send someone up into a redwood tree, hoping this would stop the company from cutting the trees down. Julia Butterfly Hill volunteered. Hill lived in the tree for over two years without ever coming down. Her home was a 6-by-8-foot tree house, 180 feet up. It is always cold and wet in a redwood tree. There were even very serious winter storms while Hill was in the tree. The wind and cold almost knocked Hill out of the tree. But she did not fall -- she survived. Finally, after years of arguing, the company decided to protect Luna, the tree Hill lived in. They signed an agreement to never cut down this huge redwood tree or the trees around it. When Hill put her feet on the earth again, she began to cry. But from that moment on Hill hasn't stopped working to protect the environment. Julia Butterfly Hill traveled to California   _  .
to find a new job to build a tree house with the hope of joining Earth First in expectation of doing something meaningful