http://cbs5.com/local/bohemian.club.logging.2.710865.htmlApr 28, 2008 Private Bohemian Club Involved In Logging DisputeSONOMA COUNTY (CBS 5) ― The exclusive and private Bohemian Club is involved in a very public battle over logging at its secret Sonoma County enclave. The high-powered club is seeking a special logging permit from the state that would allow logging without strict environmental review.
For 100 years, the club has been holding annual secret gatherings at the Bohemian Grove, the largest unprotected redwood forest in Sonoma County. Environmentalists say the club is trying to get around state law in its efforts to cut down trees.
Our video report has more. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/07/05/MNUU18ICIV.DTLNo retreat from uproar over Bohemian Club woodsJane Kay, Chronicle Environment Writer
Monday, July 6, 200907-05) 19:24 PDT -- The members of the 130-year-old Bohemian Club will return this week to their Sonoma County redwood forest for the annual encampment, the exclusive retreat of the men-only secret society.
This year, the long weekend of male bonding for 2,000 of the mostly rich and powerful is under public scrutiny: The club's management is seeking to limit governmental review of future logging on the 2,700-acre Bohemian Grove in the lush Russian River watershed.
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Increasing volume of logging
Over a 50-year period, the logging would increase from 800,000 board-feet to 1.7 million board-feet under the proposed permit.
But environmental groups - Sierra Club, Forest Unlimited and Central Coast Watch - and a former club member, John Hooper, who resigned from the club in 2004 over the Bohemians' logging practices, insist that repeated governmental review for every cut is necessary. They say the important Russian River forest can't support all that cutting.On the other hand, forestry experts from the club say that under the plan, the forest volume of the Bohemian Grove is expected to double in 80 years.In March, at a formal review meeting of several state agencies, the forestry agency staff said it would recommend approval of the permit. The proposed permit was put out for comment, which ended in May, bringing in a series of new objections. A final decision by the agency's director is expected this year.
Much to the embarrassment of the club, which bars uninvited guests and keeps its membership list under wraps,
the fight has grown so heated that the national media, including Vanity Fair, have turned it into a cause celebre over questions of environmental stewardship.
An exclusive club
Members - who pay about $25,000 a year - include directors of the nation's biggest companies, musicians, political leaders and celebrities.
The club had tried to stop the Vanity Fair story by complaining to editor Graydon Carter that the journalist,
Alex Shoumatoff, was a Harvard College classmate of John Hooper, the fourth-generation Bohemian Club member turned opponent, Shoumatoff wrote in his piece.
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Again the club was in the news in June in association with the pending confirmation of U.S. Judge Sonia Sotomayor as a Supreme Court justice.
Republicans accused her of discriminatory behavior because of her membership in an elite women's club, the Belizean Grove, which its members say is a take off on the all-male Bohemian Grove.Sotomayor resigned from the club, bringing derision from comedian Stephen Colbert, who mocked the disparity. Every Republican president since Herbert Hoover is believed to have been a Bohemian Club member - as was Chief Justice Earl Warren.
