Los Angeles June 14, 2006 – Hollywood actress Daryl Hannah was arrested yesterday after spending two weeks sitting in a walnut tree on an urban farm a few kilometers from downtown Los Angeles. She was one of 40 people, including celebrities from the music and movie world, who were protesting at the proposed destruction of the 14 – acre farm. Police officers cut away branches from the tree and used a fire engine to reach Ms Hannah and her co – protester, environmentalist John Quigley. The two of them raised their fists in defiance（反抗）as they were removed.
Protesters, some of whom had chained themselves to concrete –filled barrels（桶），said that it was essential to keep the farm operating, as it provided food for hundreds of poor families in the area. About 350 people grow produce and flowers on the farm, which has been there for more than a decade and is situated in an inner –city area surrounded by warehouses and railroad tracks. However, the local authority recently approved plans for the area to be cleared and redeveloped for the construction of a huge new warehouse.
Ms Hannah, 45, star of films such as Splash and Kill Bill was not thrilled about being arrested. “But I felt it was important to show my support for the people,” she said. “This farm should be a model for sustainable (可持續(xù)的) urban agriculture. It needs to be replicated, not eradicated.”
The record length for a tree protest is held by a woman called Julia Hill, who remained on top of a 30-metre-high redwood tree in Northern California for 738 days from December 1997 to December 1999. She was successful in saving the tree and those around it from destruction. Ms Hill was also at the Los Angeles urban farm project this week, but her presence failed to stop the inevitable (不可避免的). No sooner had the protesters been removed than earth-moving machines moved in and began to clear the land.
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