5.Villages In The Forests Of Germany
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.
4.Julia Butterfly Hill
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.
3.Early Settlers In The Wild West
In the late 1800s, many pioneers were just coming across on wagon trains to settle down with their families. To their surprise, these early settlers discovered a mauled landscape dotted with enormous, towering tree stumps that the lumber companies had left behind.
Some of these sturdy stumps were 3 meters (10 ft) tall. These old logging sites that had cleared the forest seemed perfect for farmland. So some of the thriftiest pioneers had the wise idea to homestead these areas. They settled in what became known as “stump homes.”
Basically, all the settlers had to do was put a roof on top of the stumps and attach a door. While some lived in these homes with their families, others used them for storage or chicken coops.
For some stumps that remained on the property, the pioneers came up with other creative uses. Some were leveled off at the top into flat platforms where the people would have social gatherings, like “stump dances” to folk music. One of these stump homes became the first US Post Office in the remote Olympic Peninsula, and it still stands today as a historic landmark.
2. Korowai People Tree Life
While they reportedly don’t practice cannibalism anymore, they are notorious for being one of the last active cannibalistic tribes.
Unfortunately, the Korowai are lesser known for continuing the wondrous architectural traditions of their ancestors. They build their unique homes in the shelter of the jungle’s thick canopy.
The average height of a home is about 10 meters (33 ft) off the ground, but some are as high as 35 meters (115 ft). The Korowai construct the floors to be incredibly sturdy, so each home can hold about a dozen people. Family groups live together, along with their pets and other domestic animals like livestock.
There are many possible reasons why the Korowai live in the trees. It could be to avoid their bothersome neighbors, evil spirits, flooding, or just the hordes of malaria-carrying mosquitoes that terrorize them below.
The biggest threat to the Korowai’s treetop residences is fire. Each home has its own fire pit. To avoid having their tree houses go up in flames, they design a cutaway floor around each fire pit for emergencies.
1.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 idea and don’t give a at.”
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