Julianne Skai Arbor aka TreeGirl

I look forward to returning into the soil when I have ended my own life cycle... not surprisingly, I hope to become a tree, in both physical form and in spirit. Then I imagine I will truly find peace... while doing what trees do all day and night… I'll whisper to passing humans to remember their own divinity as well as their mortality and their place in the family of nature.

Obituary

Julianne Skai Arbor, also known to many around the world as TreeGirl, passed away on June 17, 2026, in Sebastopol, California, following injuries sustained in a vehicular accident. She was 57 years old.

Born on May 23, 1969, in Chicago, Illinois, Julianne grew up in Park Ridge, where she graduated from Maine South High School in 1987. She went on to earn a Bachelor of Arts in Theatre and History from Knox College in 1991, followed by a Master of Arts in Arts and Consciousness Studies from John F. Kennedy University in 1995, and a Master of Science in Environmental Education through  the Audubon Expedition Institute of Lesley University in 1999.

Julianne was an extraordinarily intelligent, multi-faceted, bright-spirited woman who touched countless lives through her passion, kindness, generosity, and commitment to the other-than-human world. She was internationally known as an artist, environmental educator, photographer, arborist, rewilder, naturalist, forest ecotherapist, shamanic practitioner, speaker, author, citizen scientist, researcher, traveler, mentor, and seeker of truth, and yet she was so much more than all these things. An inspired visionary, with a foot between worlds, Julianne continually evolved throughout her life, pursuing each calling with remarkable energy, purpose, and intensity. At the heart of everything she did was a single guiding purpose: to deepen humanity’s relationship with the natural world
and wake people up to remember, in her own words, that we are not separate from nature, “we are nature.”

After moving to California in 1993, Julianne encountered the majestic redwoods and ancient oaks of the American West. Two years later, while traveling through the rainforests of Queensland, Australia, she experienced what she later described as the birth of TreeGirl. Drawn to two trees that appeared to be dancing together, she instinctively stepped between them and created the first image of what would become an internationally acclaimed body of work. Looking back on that moment, she later said, “I found my thing. I found what lights me up.”

Her life’s work brought together art, ecology, activism, education, ecopsychology, shamanism, and spirituality. In 1999, Julianne pioneered the Environmental Arts and Education program at New College of California, where she taught until 2008, inspiring students to understand environmental issues not only intellectually but experientially and creatively. She also taught Natural Resources at Santa Rosa Junior College and, in 2003, taught in Scotland and India through the Living Routes ecovillage education program, helping students explore sustainability, community, permaculture, and ecology through immersive, place-based learning.

As her work deepened, Julianne became an ISA Certified Arborist, a certified California Naturalist, and a trained permaculture teacher, bringing scientific knowledge and holistic ecological design together with her artistic and spiritual understanding of trees. Long before “forest bathing” became widely known in the West, Julianne was guiding people into direct relationship with forests through ecotherapy and immersive nature experiences. She collaborated with the early forest therapy programs in California,
served as United States Co-Representative for the International Ecopsychology Society, travelled internationally to speak at conferences, and in 2019 spent a month in Japan studying Shinrin-yoku, forest medicine, and the traditions surrounding the world’s oldest sacred trees.

Julianne loved to travel, and over decades she explored North America, Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia, and the Pacific in search of ancient, culturally significant, and extraordinary trees. Through her self-portrait photography and the written word, she invited people to experience an embodied relationship with trees as living, sentient beings. On January 15, 2017, she published her seminal book "TreeGirl: Intimate Encounters with Wild Nature", an award-winning anthology documenting more than fifteen years of photography, travel, and research across fifty species of remarkable trees. Rich with stunning imagery, natural history, ecology, personal insights, and reflections, this book stands as one of Julianne’s greatest gifts to the world—an enduring invitation to see and experience trees, and ourselves, differently.

Julianne had long been deeply involved in the Goddess community, the permaculture community, as well as extended eco-spiritual and shamanic communities. And while she continued her lifelong calling as TreeGirl, in her final years her focus shifted toward finding how she could best help resist what she identified as an assault on humanity and organic life. As a dedicated citizen microscopist, researcher, freedom fighter, and sovereign being, she launched her Substack, "Un-Hackable Animal", in 2023, growing a community of over 3,800 subscribers. There, she published her microscopic investigations into what she saw as emerging threats to humanity and organic life - including nanotechnology, synthetic biology, geoengineering, and the transhumanist agenda - fiercely challenging assumptions and encouraging others to protect the natural biology of living systems.

On April 15, 2026, she published Nano Nano: Microscopy Investigations, an ambitious collection of more than 344 microscopy images and essays produced in collaboration with an international research group known as The Micronauts. True to Julianne’s
lifelong character, this final contribution reflected her fierce love for humanity, her refusal to back down in the face of immense challenges, and her steadfast determination to help preserve life on Earth.

Julianne was preceded in death by her mother, Mary Ann Ewry (née Ward), in 2003, and her father, Ralph H. Ewry, in 2006. She is survived by her sister Suzanne Ewry; her former husband Damien McAnany Luce; the McAnany family; Victoria Munn and family
of Ohio; Cindy Allen family of Illinois; Noel Payne family of Wisconsin; her beloved cats Princess Hinoki, Lightning Bug, and Kabuki; her godson Zack Gray; and a remarkable international community of students, readers, colleagues, researchers, fellow travellers, and friends whose lives she enriched through her generosity, creativity, adventurous spirit, and unwavering commitment to rewilding humanity’s relationship with nature.

To those who knew her, Julianne will be remembered not only for the fierce brilliance of her mind, but for the untamed beauty of her soul, her wild creativity, her love of dressing up and playing games, her infectious enthusiasm in shopping for treasures, her joy in hosting parties for her friends, making delicious acorn treats and chocolate goodies, and of course, spoiling her beloved cats.

One of the remarkable things about Julianne was that so many people felt she was their best friend. Her extraordinary generosity of spirit was simply who she was. She welcomed people into her life wholeheartedly, making each person feel genuinely seen, valued, and loved. It is one of the many reasons her loss is felt so deeply by friends around the world.

The same generous spirit that shaped her friendships also guided her life’s purpose. She devoted herself to helping others reconnect with the living Earth, believing that healing ourselves and healing the Earth were inseparable. Julianne’s legacy lives on in
the trees and forests she loved, the communities she built, the students she inspired, the friends whose lives she changed forever, and in every person around the world who now pauses to listen, reconnect, and remember, in her own words, that “we are nature.”

Celebration of Life & Memorial Information

A Celebration of Life honoring Julianne Skai Arbor (TreeGirl) will be held at a later date. Details of the time, location, and ways to participate—both in person and online—will be shared with family, friends, and Julianne’s worldwide community as soon as
arrangements are finalized.

This online memorial is a place where friends, students, colleagues, and admirers from around the world will be invited to share photographs, memories, stories, and messages of remembrance. 

In lieu of flowers and in keeping with Julianne’s lifelong love of trees and her commitment to the natural world, those wishing to honor her memory are invited to plant a native tree, spend time in quiet reflection beneath a tree or in a forest, or support organizations dedicated to environmental restoration, reforestation, tree conservation, ecopsychology, or nature connection. Suggested organizations: TreeSisters, International Ecopsychology Society, and others to be shared once known.

Quotes

"I look forward to returning into the soil when I have ended my own life cycle... not surprisingly, I hope to become a tree, in both physical form and in spirit. Then I imagine I will truly find peace... while doing what trees do all day and night… I'll whisper to passing humans to remember their own divinity as well as their mortality and their place in the family of nature." Julianne Skai Arbor in her TreeGirl book. 

Timeline

Gallery

Memory wall

July 15, 2026

Meeting Tree Girl was a delightful surprise to me. I was introduced to her calendars, cards and magnificent book thru a mutual friend, then met Tree Girl in person at two successive Goddess Fairs. She was costumed as a tree sprite and offering acorn cookies to customers. We had a fun conversation and she inspired me, as she has many people, to be more aware that "we are nature." I'm sad that she has left us while still a young, vibrant artist.

Sofi Haelan

July 12, 2026

Julianne,
I cannot believe you were called so early with so much you've contributed to life on Earth. I learned so much from you the greatest lesson being your example of truly connecting with nature; body and soul. Your brilliance in bringing students into the understanding of our natural world showed an excellence few instructors embody. We are all better humans having shared life with you and I'm so sad to see you've gone so soon. As I look up from my writing, I'm witnessing a brilliant sunset reminding me you are still in our midst.
Kasey

Kasey Wade

July 10, 2026

This is such a troubling loss. I woke up yesterday to a crew taking out a neighbor oak that had succumbed to sudden oak death, so I had thought to reach out to TreeGirl to see if she could help me broaden my perspective in the care of my trees with her beautiful, gracious, feminine soul and presence, intimate approach in caring for trees, and love of oaks with her quercus sense of humor and then learned that she is no longer with us in human form. Oh my on the confluences…. I only knew her through her book, videos, and three of her ecotherapy sessions at the once Hidden Forest Nursery yet still remember the feeling of her hand when we shared a hand squeeze with each other. So heartbreaking on so many levels, but I hope we can carry on the legacy of her work in the intimate care of nature with the grace of the feminine presence she truly embodied.

Melanie N-K

July 9, 2026

"Tree Girl beloved – Elegia per un’amica”

The night that I found out about TreeGirl’s accident I also discovered this beautiful tribute by Marcella Danon to her being, life and work from the “EcoPsiche Journal” from the "Scuola di Ecopsicologia” - School of EcoPsychology - one of the many international organizations that she was involved with.

The first half is in Italian but it is also translated into English at the bottom along with links to many of her wonderful videos.

www.ecopsicologia.it/tree-girl-beloved

Tamara Wilder

July 8, 2026

Both hugely shocked and saddened hearing of your departure from our current time. Taken way too early.
Thank you for all your help and information, guidance and humour.
See you on the other side.

Louise Coats

July 6, 2026

Julianne and I met while both teaching at New College in Santa Rosa in the early 2000’s and in recent years were fortunate to spend more time working together at the Goddess Crafts Faire in Sebastopol each December. Two of the strongest most recent memories that I’d like to share are from that event, where she and her booth were the most enchanting corner that would consistently draw people in to linger:
-The first is from two years ago when she brought some delicious brownies made from acorn flour. I had saved part of that mix and just made up a batch in her memory. Still sooo delicious!
-The second is from this past December when Julianne was transforming the stage area with her beautiful images. This all meant that she was constantly up & down a tall ladder both before and after the event. As I was leaving, she was of course up at the top of that ladder as we said our goodbyes…….. not realizing that it would be the last time.
You are incredibly missed Julianne and may your spirit be finding itself among the trees!
The photo I am sharing is of the sweet autograph she included in my copy of her amazing book “TreeGirl……Intimate Encounters with Wild Nature”.

Tamara Wilder

July 5, 2026

Cathy Signorelli asked me to post this:

"Julianne and I sent each other cat pictures, jokes, anything cat. A few days before she died, she sent me this, prefacing it by saying I hate AI, but this is hysterical! It shows her sense of humor and her love of cats."

www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0DwfS-Jxp0

Damien Mcanany Luce

July 4, 2026

In 2008 I had the honor of becoming Treegirl (Julianne Skai-Arbor) massage therapist. Over the years we also became dear friends and she loved me so much. Always there for me and especially in the last few months we held each other up during the hard times. She helped me with her expert travel knowledge to plan my trip to Madeira and see that I had the most amazing experience. She left while I was there and she was taking care of my cat and home. I was blessed to be the one who took care of her little body so she could keep being Treegirl. She has now become Wood. May the glow from the fire it brings be honorable to her mighty power while she was a live tree. I love you.

Ruthie Saia

June 28, 2026

Julianne... you were my oldest and closest friend... I miss you so much... you were much too young and too full of life to leave like this... I can't believe you aren't here... for over 25 years you were so deeply embedded and woven into my life... at first as my college professor, my mentor and my muse, then later my work colleague, my activist partner in crime, my fellow truth seeker, ancestral skills practitioner, and so much more.. you were the only one who was consistently there for me through all the ups and downs, who understood all the complexities of my life... you will always and forever be my soul sister and best friend. I am so grateful for the wonderful baby shower you threw for me, for being Goddess mother to my son Zack, for holding me through the horrible death of my father, the long years of my abusive marriage and ugly divorce.. and for single-handedly helping me through the brutal transition of losing my California home and getting me and Zack back to the UK during COVID. I'm grateful for all the travel adventures we had in India, the UK, California, Idaho and Nevada... for all the conversations and connections we shared with the living Earth and other-than-human world. For our shared views and insights into the important issues of our times... I am feeling your loss so keenly right now... there was no one like you and there never will be again.. I know you were unafraid of death and that you’re at peace sister. And I know that the work you did while you were alive here on Earth will live on. I only wish I’d had one more chance to sit with you beneath the trees, to laugh together one more time, and to tell you just how deeply I loved you... until we meet again.. xxxx

Raven Gray

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