Lisa the Tree Hugger

Joshua Jackson as Jesse Grass

"Lisa the Tree Hugger" is the fourth episode of the twelfth season of the American animated sitcom The Simpsons. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on November 19, 2000. In the episode, Lisa falls in love with the leader (Jesse Grass) of a radical environmentalist group and tries to impress him by living in Springfield's oldest tree in order to keep it from being cut down. The episode is based on the story of the American tree sitter Julia Butterfly Hill. Actor Joshua Jackson guest starred in the episode as Jesse.

Bart, needing money for the new video game console Gamestation 256, takes a job hanging menus on doors for a Thai restaurant. Lisa is concerned that the menus are wasting paper and hurting the environment, but the family ignores her worries. On a trip to Krusty Burger to celebrate Bart's new job, they see protesters dressed as cows on the roof of the restaurant. The protesters unfurl a banner and accuse Krusty Burger of deforesting the rainforest to create grazing land for cattle. The police arrive and shoot the protesters with bean bag rounds. As the protesters are being arrested, Lisa meets their leader—radical environmentalist Jesse Grass—and is instantly smitten with him.

Lisa visits Jesse in jail, but feels intimidated when she sees that he is more dedicated to environmentalism than she is. She attends a meeting of Jesse's activist group, Dirt First, and learns that an ancient tree in Springfield is scheduled for demolition. Jesse asks if anyone in the group would be willing to live in the tree to prevent its destruction. Lisa, hoping to impress him, volunteers. She climbs the tree and sets up camp, but after a few days she begins to miss her family. She sneaks away from the tree at night and goes home to see them, but finds them asleep. She lies down with them and accidentally falls asleep. When she rushes to the tree in the morning, she finds it has collapsed.