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 a group of protesters in cow costumes standing on the roof of the restaurant, accusing the company of illegal deforestation. 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 and learns that one of
Springfield's oldest trees has been secretly auctioned off to the
Rich Texan. Jesse asks if anyone in the group would be willing to live in the tree to prevent its destruction, and Lisa volunteers, hoping to impress him. She climbs the tree and sets up camp for a few days, after which she begins to miss her family. She eventually sneaks away from the tree at night and goes home to see them, but finds them asleep, so she lies down with them and accidentally falls asleep herself. The next day, the local news reveals that the tree was felled by lightning overnight, Lisa is presumed dead, and the Texan will dedicate the surrounding forest as a nature preserve in her honor. Lisa hears this and, despite
Marge's objections, chooses not to reveal that she is alive, while
Homer and Bart readily exploit the sympathy of the townspeople. However, when the Texan changes his mind and begins turning the forest into an amusement park called "Lisa Land", Lisa angrily reveals herself in an attempt to stop him. Jesse also protests by taking out the supports for the destroyed tree, which has been logged and turned into a "Lisa Land" sign; the log slides down the hill and into downtown Springfield where it devastates multiple buildings, for which Jesse is jailed once again. The epilogue, set to a parody of "
This Land is Your Land" called "This Log is Your Log", shows the log continuing to slide across the country, passing
Mount Rushmore and ultimately reaching the coast of
San Francisco where it then heads out to the
Pacific Ocean. ==Production and analysis==