Thread: Bohemian Club tries new tactic to log grove

Bohemian Club tries new tactic to log grove

Jane Kay, Chronicle Environment Writer

Friday, March 28, 2008

Bohemian Club redwoods are up to 300 feet tall and 1,000





The Bohemian Club's ambitious plan to log its famed Bohemian Grove on the Russian River hit a snag last year when opponents argued that the ritzy club's redwood holdings were too large to qualify for a streamlined permit from the state.

In a new move, the all-male San Francisco club has offered to donate 160 acres as a conservation easement to the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation of Missoula, Mont., effectively whittling down the size and making it eligible for a state exemption to log in perpetuity without extensive environmental review.

Opponents of the plan, including the Sierra Club and some former Bohemian Club members, say the club's action is nothing more than a thinly veiled end-run around state law that offers the special permit to small, noncommercial holdings.

At the heart of the controversy is the 2,700-acre redwood grove, where the club's secret membership, including U.S. presidents, kings of industry and celebrities, have gathered for spring and summer retreats for more than a century. It is Sonoma County's largest remnant of ancient redwood forests, most of which were clear-cut to rebuild San Francisco after the 1906 earthquake and fire.

The grove's redwood stands, mixed with Douglas fir and hardwood trees, lie in Monte Rio in the watershed of the Russian River. They provide sanctuary for northern spotted owls, marbled murrelets and rare plants.

The club wants to log about 1 million board-feet a year and argues that it deserves the streamlined permit, or "non-industrial timber management plan," because logging would improve its forest and prevent wildfires. Its board of directors has submitted a 100-year plan that has been under review by the state Department of Forestry and Fire Prevention for the past two years.

Some who oppose the plan say that amount of logging, enough to build 70 houses a year, would fragment the forest and, in the absence of full state and federal review, open the door to unchecked abuse. The club has been doing some logging since 1984, but in past years, it has filed conventional logging plans, which come under agency environmental review. The club's request for a streamlined permit is scheduled to be taken up April 10 in Santa Rosa by the state Department of Forestry and other agencies.
A matter of acreage

A sticking point in the club's winning approval has been that the streamlined permit is available only to landowners with timber holdings of less than 2,500 acres. The club has asserted that it has 2,450 acres of timberland, but the surveys are unclear.

The Sierra Club and other groups, including a Santa Cruz organization called Neighbors Against Irresponsible Logging, have charged that the club's Bohemian Grove doesn't qualify because it's greater than 2,500 acres.

The issue of size is yet unresolved, according to Forestry Department officials, who will make the final decision in coming months. But in the past several months, club representatives have approached the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation in Missoula, offering to donate about 160 acres for a conservation easement, an agreement that would protect the acreage from logging and other development. The foundation's mission is to protect elk and other wildlife and improve habitat all around the country.

Matt Oggero, the club's Bohemian Grove manager, wrote in an e-mail that the club's members "are committed to safeguarding these trees, and this conservation easement will add another element of protection." He didn't respond to criticism that the easement was the club's way of satisfying the size requirement.

Opponents have their opinions. In a letter to the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, John Hooper, a Mendocino County orchard owner who resigned from the Bohemian Club after disagreements over how the club cared for the grove, called it "at best ... a cynical use of a conservation easement."

"It is nothing more than a stratagem to obtain logging rights," he wrote.

Hooper asserted that the same acreage is off limits under the club's proposed logging plan under review by the state agency.

The easement "protects nothing that was not already protected and it exposes a far greater amount of land to potential environmental harm than the amount in the easement," he wrote.

Jay Halcomb, chairman of the Sierra Club Redwood Chapter's forest protection committee, called the conservation easement "just a feint of protection."

"It's totally unnecessary. As a practical matter, the old-growth groves are essentially protected" because they offer ecologically valuable habitat for imperiled species, he said. "Logging there would never be allowed by the agencies, and the Bohemian Club members wouldn't allow it. That's their retreat."
Offer interests foundation

Bob Hammond, western lands program manager with the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, said the Bohemian Club approached the foundation asking for the easement for two parcels.

The foundation hasn't completed the easement, he said. "This is a work in progress."

One parcel is located in the club's Main Grove, about 109 acres, which holds a lake, cabins and a central encampment. The other is the Upper Bull Barn's 54 acres.

"Our focus is primarily on protecting the two groves in perpetuity," Hammond said. "Old growth is protected for sure in parks. Outside of parks, it is not protected."

Hammond said he was assured by the Bohemian Club's forest consultant, Nick Kent, that the club would qualify for the permit even without the easement.

But Ronald Pape, the Forestry Department's acting deputy director of resource management, who will recommend approval or disapproval of the permit to the agency's director, said the issue of size eligibility still needs to be resolved.

If the easement or other documentation of the holding's size doesn't arrive before the April 10 meeting, the matter will be postponed, Pape said.

"Before I do anything, I have to have in the file a signed agreement," he said. "If I don't have that, it doesn't go anywhere. That is one of the core issues of resolving this acreage issue."

Earlier story: Why the Bohemian Club wants to log its grove
Get involved

The public may observe a working session of state and federal agencies reviewing the Bohemian Club's permit request.

When: Thursday, April 10, at 10 a.m. *

Where: Department of Forestry, 135 Ridgeway Ave., Santa Rosa.

* Confirm beforehand that it will take place by calling (707) 576-2959.

E-mail Jane Kay at jkay@sfchronicle.com.

This article appeared on page B - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.c ... 0VQV83.DTL

If they cut down the trees..where will they hide when they do their "Creamation of Care" ceremony? How disgusting they are!