CALIFORNIA IN BRIEF : LOS ANGELES : Plans to Cut Down Redwoods Protested

Environmental activists and sympathetic politicians rallied to criticize a Los Angeles-based company’s plans to cut down the world’s largest remaining privately owned virgin redwood forest. Several dozen demonstrators gathered at the Westwood headquarters of Maxxam Corp., which was criticized for over-harvesting redwood forests to pay off debt incurred during its hostile 1986 takeover of the Pacific Lumber Co. At issue is a Humboldt County redwood grove known as the Headwaters Forest. The Natural Resources Defense Council, Sierra Club, and Assemblymen Tom Hayden (D-West Los Angeles) and Byron D. Sher (D-Palo Alto) said Pacific Lumber Co. has accelerated plans to fell that stand and others to avoid restrictions proposed in an initiative they are trying to qualify for the November, 1990, ballot. The initiative, called the California Environmental Protection Act of 1990, will be the subject of a petition-gathering drive starting next week.