cawacko
Well-known member
What rights does the club have (or should the club have) on their own property?
Bohemian Club wins timber-harvesting permit
The Bohemian Club, the secretive, men-only society known for its annual bacchanal on a sprawling forest enclave in Sonoma County, has won state approval for a logging plan allowing the group to harvest as much as 1.7 million board feet of timber a year.
The state Department of Forestry and Fire Protection's endorsement of the club's controversial permit essentially eliminates government oversight of its timber-harvesting practices over the next century.
While the 130-year-old club, whose members are believed to have included every Republican president since Herbert Hoover, argues the logging plan will help reduce fire risk and restore its 2,700-acre Russian River encampment to a natural state, critics say the forest, its streams and wildlife could suffer broad, long-term damage.
"If we fly over the area in 30 or 40 years, we'll see pockets that are relatively pristine and other areas that will look like a commercial tree farm - a mosaic of industrially managed stands," said John Hooper, a former club member who resigned in 2004 in protest of the organization's logging practices.
Hooper and others are particularly concerned about the preservation of old-growth redwoods, which Hooper said have been felled on several occasions in the San Francisco club's history. Hooper said that in 2001 he helped halt the cutting of one section of the mammoth trees.
But Bohemian Club spokesman Sam Singer emphasized that the old-growth stands are of immense importance to the club's 2,000 members and that none of the giant redwoods will be chopped down; rather, logging will focus on Douglas fir and tan oaks. In addition, each harvested tree will be replaced by redwood seedlings, he said.
Old-growth protection
"Second-, third- and fourth-generation redwoods will be thinned so that if there is a devastating fire, firefighters will have the opportunity to stop it before it reaches the old-growth stand," Singer said.
The state's sign-off on the plan Tuesday marked the last chapter in a nearly four-year fight over logging in the Bohemian Grove, the largest remaining private redwood forest close to San Francisco and a lush habitat of the rare marbled murrelet, northern spotted owl, coho salmon and steelhead.
Between 1984 and about 2005, the club - whose members pay about $25,000 a year and include politicians, celebrities and captains of industry - logged about 11,000 redwood and other trees in relative obscurity. But that changed in early 2006 when some club members urged the board to seek a streamlined logging permit. Known as a "nonindustrial timber management plan" the permit gives the club permission to harvest on 2,300 acres of timberland through 2106 without having to submit to government review for each logging run. Instead, California forestry, wildlife and water regulators can inspect the logging practices at their discretion. To qualify for the permit, an owner can't have more than 2,500 acres of timberland; in recent years, the Bohemian Club has transferred some acreage to conservation groups in order to fall below the maximum.
Transparency sought
Environmentalists cried foul, claiming that the club was mischaracterizing some lands in order to qualify for the less-stringent permit and that comprehensive, continual government supervision is necessary to keep the Bohemian Club's operations transparent.
They also object to the group's argument that the logging is based purely on suppressing fires. In their application, the Bohemian Club's board contended that "crown bulk density," or the broad canopies created by tall trees, is the major fuel for fires, said Rich Fairbanks, fire program associate with the Wilderness Society. Fairbanks said surface and "ladder" fuels, such as twigs and brush, are more important. He said the club simply wants to harvest timber.
"This is what we call a timber sale in drag," Fairbanks said.
Under the state permit, maximum conifer logging allowed at the Bohemian Grove will increase from the current 700,000 board feet per year to as much as 1.7 million board feet per year in the 2087-2096 period.
Singer and the club insist, however, that any timber revenue will be funneled into tree replanting and forest restoration.
"Any money produced will go immediately into the preservation of the Bohemian Grove," Singer said. "This has more to do with the long-term health of the forest, it's not about money."
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/12/30/MNDC1BBK2G.DTL
Bohemian Club wins timber-harvesting permit
The Bohemian Club, the secretive, men-only society known for its annual bacchanal on a sprawling forest enclave in Sonoma County, has won state approval for a logging plan allowing the group to harvest as much as 1.7 million board feet of timber a year.
The state Department of Forestry and Fire Protection's endorsement of the club's controversial permit essentially eliminates government oversight of its timber-harvesting practices over the next century.
While the 130-year-old club, whose members are believed to have included every Republican president since Herbert Hoover, argues the logging plan will help reduce fire risk and restore its 2,700-acre Russian River encampment to a natural state, critics say the forest, its streams and wildlife could suffer broad, long-term damage.
"If we fly over the area in 30 or 40 years, we'll see pockets that are relatively pristine and other areas that will look like a commercial tree farm - a mosaic of industrially managed stands," said John Hooper, a former club member who resigned in 2004 in protest of the organization's logging practices.
Hooper and others are particularly concerned about the preservation of old-growth redwoods, which Hooper said have been felled on several occasions in the San Francisco club's history. Hooper said that in 2001 he helped halt the cutting of one section of the mammoth trees.
But Bohemian Club spokesman Sam Singer emphasized that the old-growth stands are of immense importance to the club's 2,000 members and that none of the giant redwoods will be chopped down; rather, logging will focus on Douglas fir and tan oaks. In addition, each harvested tree will be replaced by redwood seedlings, he said.
Old-growth protection
"Second-, third- and fourth-generation redwoods will be thinned so that if there is a devastating fire, firefighters will have the opportunity to stop it before it reaches the old-growth stand," Singer said.
The state's sign-off on the plan Tuesday marked the last chapter in a nearly four-year fight over logging in the Bohemian Grove, the largest remaining private redwood forest close to San Francisco and a lush habitat of the rare marbled murrelet, northern spotted owl, coho salmon and steelhead.
Between 1984 and about 2005, the club - whose members pay about $25,000 a year and include politicians, celebrities and captains of industry - logged about 11,000 redwood and other trees in relative obscurity. But that changed in early 2006 when some club members urged the board to seek a streamlined logging permit. Known as a "nonindustrial timber management plan" the permit gives the club permission to harvest on 2,300 acres of timberland through 2106 without having to submit to government review for each logging run. Instead, California forestry, wildlife and water regulators can inspect the logging practices at their discretion. To qualify for the permit, an owner can't have more than 2,500 acres of timberland; in recent years, the Bohemian Club has transferred some acreage to conservation groups in order to fall below the maximum.
Transparency sought
Environmentalists cried foul, claiming that the club was mischaracterizing some lands in order to qualify for the less-stringent permit and that comprehensive, continual government supervision is necessary to keep the Bohemian Club's operations transparent.
They also object to the group's argument that the logging is based purely on suppressing fires. In their application, the Bohemian Club's board contended that "crown bulk density," or the broad canopies created by tall trees, is the major fuel for fires, said Rich Fairbanks, fire program associate with the Wilderness Society. Fairbanks said surface and "ladder" fuels, such as twigs and brush, are more important. He said the club simply wants to harvest timber.
"This is what we call a timber sale in drag," Fairbanks said.
Under the state permit, maximum conifer logging allowed at the Bohemian Grove will increase from the current 700,000 board feet per year to as much as 1.7 million board feet per year in the 2087-2096 period.
Singer and the club insist, however, that any timber revenue will be funneled into tree replanting and forest restoration.
"Any money produced will go immediately into the preservation of the Bohemian Grove," Singer said. "This has more to do with the long-term health of the forest, it's not about money."
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/12/30/MNDC1BBK2G.DTL
