Miranda Gibson

Last updated

Miranda Gibson is an environmental activist and school teacher from Australia who is known for her tree sitting to save the rainforest in Southern Tasmania from logging. Her 449 days spent up the tree is the longest running tree sit in Australian history.

Biography

On 14 December 2011, Gibson climbed up a 60 m (200 ft) old-growth Eucalyptus delegatensis tree, dubbed the 'Observer Tree', [1] in the heart of Tasmania's southern rainforest. [2] [3] [4] Gibson vowed to stay until the forest in the Styx Valley was protected. The area was due to be logged by a Malaysian company, Ta Ann. [2] [5] After three months, her blog about the experience had attracted over 50,000 views. [5]

Gibson had a 3 m (9.8 ft) platform built at the top of the tree, [6] and was connected to a safety harness at all times. During the sit she experienced snow, hail and gale-force winds. [7] She used a composting toilet, which she would lower down to her support crew on the ground, and slept under a tarp. A solar-powered computer and satellite technology enabled her to write a blog and attend environmental conferences, school groups and festivals by video link. Gibson did not come down from the tree at any point during her sit, which broke the previous Australian record of 208 days, set in 1995. [7] At the one year anniversary she was thanked by Nick Cave, John Butler, Blue King Brown, Bob Brown and Julia Butterfly Hill. [6] Gibson had visitors on her platform during her tree sit, including her mother who stayed with her for four days. [7]

Gibson came down from the tree in March 2013 after 449 [8] days as a safety precaution due to a nearby bushfire. [2] [9] She voiced her disappointment in having to come down under those circumstances, though said she was proud of her achievement and vowed to keep fighting for Tasmania's forests. [10] In June 2013, Tasmania's Wilderness World Heritage Area was officially extended by 170,000 hectares (420,000 acres), which included the area her tree sit had been in. Gibson said she was thrilled with the decision; she had been contemplating returning to the tree if the World Heritage space had not been extended. [8] [11]

Related Research Articles

<i>Eucalyptus regnans</i> Species of eucalyptus

Eucalyptus regnans, known variously as mountain ash, giant ash or swamp gum, or stringy gum, is a species of very tall forest tree that is native to the Australia states of Tasmania and Victoria. It is a straight-trunked tree with smooth grey bark, but with a stocking of rough brown bark at the base, glossy green, lance-shaped to curved adult leaves, flower buds in groups of between nine and fifteen, white flowers, and cup-shaped or conical fruit. It is the tallest of all flowering plants; the tallest measured living specimen, named Centurion, stands 100 metres tall in Tasmania.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leadbeater's possum</span> Species of marsupial

Leadbeater's possum is a critically endangered possum largely restricted to small pockets of alpine ash, mountain ash, and snow gum forests in the Central Highlands of Victoria, Australia, north-east of Melbourne. It is primitive, relict, and non-gliding, and, as the only species in the petaurid genus Gymnobelideus, represents an ancestral form. Formerly, Leadbeater's possums were moderately common within the very small areas they inhabited; their requirement for year-round food supplies and tree-holes to take refuge in during the day restricts them to mixed-age wet sclerophyll forest with a dense mid-story of Acacia. The species was named in 1867 after John Leadbeater, the then taxidermist at the Museum Victoria. They also go by the common name of fairy possum. On 2 March 1971, the State of Victoria made the Leadbeater's possum its faunal emblem.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tree sitting</span> Occupying trees as a political protest

Tree sitting is a form of environmentalist civil disobedience in which a protester sits in a tree, usually on a small platform built for the purpose, to protect it from being cut down. Supporters usually provide the tree sitters with food and other supplies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bob Brown</span> Former Australian Greens politician, medical doctor, environmentalist

Robert James Brown is an Australian former politician, medical doctor and environmentalist. He was a senator and the parliamentary leader of the Australian Greens. Brown was elected to the Australian Senate on the Tasmanian Greens ticket, joining with sitting Greens Western Australia senator Dee Margetts to form the first group of Australian Greens senators following the 1996 federal election. He was re-elected in 2001 and in 2007. He was the first openly gay member of the Parliament of Australia and the first openly gay leader of an Australian political party.

Miranda Devine is an Australian columnist and writer, now based in New York City. She hosted The Miranda Devine Show on Sydney radio station 2GB until it ended in 2015. She has written columns for Fairfax Media newspapers The Sydney Morning Herald and The Sun-Herald, and for News Limited newspapers Daily Telegraph, Sunday Telegraph, Melbourne's Sunday Herald Sun, and Perth's Sunday Times. As of 2022, she writes for the New York Post. Some of her political opinion pieces and statements on race, gender, and the environment have been the subject of public scrutiny and debate.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Firebreak</span> Natural or man-made gap in vegetation that acts as a barrier against wildfires

A firebreak or double track is a gap in vegetation or other combustible material that acts as a barrier to slow or stop the progress of a bushfire or wildfire. A firebreak may occur naturally where there is an absence of vegetation or "fuel", such as a river, lake or canyon. Firebreaks may also be man-made, and many of these also serve as roads, such as logging roads, four-wheel drive trails, secondary roads, or highways.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Julia Butterfly Hill</span> American environmental activist (born 1974)

Julia Lorraine Hill, best known as Julia Butterfly Hill, is an American environmental activist and tax redirection advocate. She lived in a 200-foot (61 m)-tall, approximately 1,000-year-old California redwood tree for 738 days between December 10, 1997, and December 18, 1999. Hill lived in a tent near the top of a tree, affectionately known as Luna, to prevent Pacific Lumber Company loggers from cutting it down. She ultimately reached an agreement with the lumber company to save the tree. Hill is the author of the book The Legacy of Luna and co-author of One Makes the Difference.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">DC-10 Air Tanker</span> Aerial firefighting unit in the US

The DC-10 Air Tanker is a series of American wide-body jet air tankers, which have been in service as an aerial firefighting unit since 2006. The aircraft, operated by the joint technical venture 10 Tanker Air Carrier, are converted wide-body McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30 passenger jetliners, and are primarily used to fight wildfires, typically in rural areas. The turbofan-powered aircraft carry up to 9,400 US gallons of water or fire retardant in an exterior belly-mounted tank, the contents of which can be released in eight seconds. Four air tankers are currently in operation, all DC-10-30 aircraft, with the call-signs Tanker 910, 911, 912 and 914. The original Tanker 910, a DC-10-10, was retired in 2014.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Quamby Bluff</span> Mountain in Tasmania, Australia

Quamby Bluff is a mountain in Northern Tasmania, Australia that is an outlying part of the Great Western Tiers mountain range.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Forests of Australia</span>

Australia has many forests of importance due to significant features, despite being one of the driest continents. As of 2009, Australia has approximately 147 million hectares of native forest, which represents about 19% of Australia's land area. The majority of Australia's trees are hardwoods, typically eucalypts, rather than softwoods like pine. While softwoods dominate some native forests, their total area is judged insufficient to constitute a major forest type in Australia's National Forest Inventory. The Forests Australia website provides up-to-date information on Australia's forests. Detailed information on Australia's forests is available from Australia's State of the Forests Reports that are published every five years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bushfires in Australia</span> Frequently occurring wildfire events

Bushfires in Australia are a widespread and regular occurrence that have contributed significantly to shaping the nature of the continent over millions of years. Eastern Australia is one of the most fire-prone regions of the world, and its predominant eucalyptus forests have evolved to thrive on the phenomenon of bushfire. However, the fires can cause significant property damage and loss of both human and animal life. Bushfires have killed approximately 800 people in Australia since 1851, and billions of animals.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sam (koala)</span> Koala rescued from a bushfire

Sam, also known as Sam the Koala, was a female koala from the forests of Mirboo North, Victoria, Australia. She became publicly known when a video and photographs of her being rescued by a firefighter were distributed on the internet and through the media during the aftermath of the Black Saturday bushfires.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Centurion (tree)</span> Worlds tallest Eucalyptus tree in Tasmania, Australia

Centurion is the name given to a single Eucalyptus regnans tree growing in Southern Tasmania, Australia, and the world's tallest known Eucalyptus. The tree was first measured by climber-deployed tapeline at 99.6 metres (327 ft) tall in 2008, and was subsequently re-measured to be 100.5 metres (330 ft) tall by ground laser in 2018. This discovery places E. regnans as the fourth-tallest tree species in the world after the coast redwood, the Himalayan cypress, and the Shorea faguetiana, and taller than both the Sitka spruce and Coastal Douglas Fir. It was discovered in August 2008 by employees of Forestry Tasmania while analysing the data collected by LiDAR system used in mapping and assessment of state forest resources.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chelsea Manning</span> American activist and whistleblower (born 1987)

Chelsea Elizabeth Manning is an American activist and whistleblower. She is a former United States Army soldier who was convicted by court-martial in July 2013 of violations of the Espionage Act and other offenses, after disclosing to WikiLeaks nearly 750,000 classified, or unclassified but sensitive, military and diplomatic documents. She was imprisoned from 2010 until 2017 when her sentence was commuted by President Barack Obama. A trans woman, Manning said in 2013 that she had a female gender identity since childhood and wanted to be known as Chelsea Manning.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2012–13 Australian bushfire season</span>

The summer of 2012–13 had above average fire potential for most of the southern half of the continent from the east coast to the west. This is despite having extensive fire in parts of the country over the last 12 months. The reason for this prediction is the abundant grass growth spurred by two La Niña events over the last two years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2013 Tasmanian bushfires</span> 2013 Fire

The 2013 Tasmanian bushfires were a series of bushfires which occurred in south-eastern Tasmania, Australia, between November 2012 and late April 2013. The fires burnt approximately 20,000 hectares of mixed resident land and native forest.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rim Fire</span> 2013 wildfire in Central California

The Rim Fire was a massive wildfire that started in a remote canyon in the Stanislaus National Forest in California's Tuolumne County. The fire ignited on August 17, 2013, amid the 2013 California wildfire season, and burned 257,314 acres in largely remote areas of the Sierra Nevada, including a large portion of Yosemite National Park. The Rim Fire was fully contained on Thursday, October 24, 2013, after a nine-week suppression effort by firefighters. Due to a lack of winter rains, some logs smoldered in the interior portion of the fire footprint throughout the winter, and more than a year passed before the fire was declared extinguished in November 2014.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2016 Tasmanian bushfires</span>

The 2016 Tasmanian Bushfires were a large series of bushfires in Tasmania which started in January 2016 throughout the state, and continued into February 2016, with considerable damage to fire sensitive areas in the Central Highlands, West Coast and South West regions. By autumn 2016, no bushfires were reported within the state.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Forests Department (Western Australia)</span> Former government department of Western Australia

The Forests Department was a department of the Government of Western Australia created in 1919 under Conservator of Forests Charles Lane Poole, that was responsible for implementing the State's Forests Act (1918–1976) legislation and regulations.

References

  1. Gibson, Miranda (2011). The Observer Tree. Tasmania: Still Wild Still Threatened.
  2. 1 2 3 "Wildfire forces anti-logging activist from tree after 449-day vigil". Mongabay. 7 March 2013. Archived from the original on 29 June 2013. Retrieved 2 June 2013.
  3. "Media Release: The world celebrates the success of community action to protect forests". The Observer Tree. 24 June 2013. Archived from the original on 14 October 2017. Retrieved 14 October 2017.
  4. "Meet the woman who lived in a tree for 449 days to save a Tassie forest". ABC News. 24 January 2018. Retrieved 4 November 2022.
  5. 1 2 Birch, Simon (12 April 2012). "Tree-top vigil highlights destruction of Tasmanian forest". The Guardian . Archived from the original on 14 October 2017. Retrieved 14 October 2017.
  6. 1 2 Sheperd, Tony (14 December 2012). "Miranda Gibson has spent a year up a tree". News.com.au . Archived from the original on 30 March 2018. Retrieved 30 March 2018.
  7. 1 2 3 Williams, Glen (30 July 2012). "Miranda's treetop vigil: I've spent 299 days up here". Women's Day . Archived from the original on 30 June 2013. Retrieved 2 June 2013.
  8. 1 2 Gibson, Miranda (24 June 2013). "I spent 449 days in a tree without touching the ground - it was all worth it". The Guardian . Archived from the original on 30 March 2018. Retrieved 30 March 2018.
  9. Milne, Christine (7 March 2013). "Wildfire ends Miranda's vigil. Brown fire probe call". Tasmanian Times. Archived from the original on 30 June 2013. Retrieved 14 October 2017.
  10. "Australian tree-sitter ends 15-month protest after bushfire". BBC News . 7 March 2013. Archived from the original on 14 October 2017. Retrieved 14 October 2017.
  11. Jabour, Bridie (24 June 2018). "Tasmania's old growth forests win environmental protection". The Guardian . Archived from the original on 30 March 2018. Retrieved 30 March 2018.