Westside : WISE MOVE
UCLA plans to begin cutting down 33 trees this week, and one owl family is not sticking around to watch its neighborhood go downhill.
The family of owls--two parents and two owlets--were living in the grove that the university plans to remove. Some of the trees are diseased, officials at the Westwood campus said, and others must be cut down to allow workers to earthquake-proof a building and enlarge a sculpture garden.
Many students and the office of state Sen. Tom Hayden (D-Santa Monica) have banded together to try to stop the cutting.
Sandy Brown, Hayden’s deputy chief of staff, said she is concerned that UCLA is cutting the trees unnecessarily. Brown lives in the neighborhood and has participated in other save-the-tree campaigns.
The protests have not swayed Charles Oakley, UCLA architect, who says the tree-cutting will begin this week.
When school officials stuck by their plan to take down the trees, the students took the baby owls to a rehabilitation center in Simi Valley.
As for the adult owls, they’re rarely seen on campus anymore. Wise owls--they got out before construction noise begins.
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