Save Bohemian Grove

10/1/10

Sierra Club final reply brief eviscerates
CALFIRE and Bohemian Club argument
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD

Court hearing set for November 12th, 2010

The Sierra Club has filed a lawsuit in Sonoma County Superior Count against the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CALFIRE) to prevent implementation of a logging plan for the Bohemian Club.

Click Here to read the full text of the legal petition.
Click Here to read the full text of the final reply brief.

12/31/09
Boho's NTMP approved by state in dead of winter
Grove Redwood
Will this old-growth tree and others like it get fresh paint? Read Kelly Zito's article in the SF Chronicle (CLICK HERE).

What's at stake:
Slide show with 16 recent photos inside the Bohemian Grove reveal old-growth marked for removal
Photographic evidence shows old growth clearly marked and awaiting destruction if the NTMP is allowed to go forward. Click Here

SF Chronicle:
"no retreat from uproar"
ChronLocationMap

Jane Kay, Chronicle Environment Writer, tackles the current state of the Boho controversy.

"(07-05) 19:24 PDT -- The members of the 130-year-old Bohemian Club will return this week to their... 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..."

Click here to read Kay's full article.

Adelia Barber from UCSC draws
accurate forestland boundary map

In an effort to bring the NTMP application under 2,500 acres Boho's foresters have apparently been shaving forestland from the perimeter of the forest land map. Adelia Barber, a U.C. Santa Cruz doctoral student has painstakingly evaluated the true boarder (and acreage) of forestland. The results are very convincing - this property doesn't even qualify for an NTMP... it's too big! Maps with aerial photography are included in this exhaustive study.

Click here to read Barber letter.
Click here to see the maps.

Prof. Rundel comments on revised "commercial logging" plan - calls for keeping large trees

"consistent with my comments on the earlier 2006 NTMP, this new NTMP clearly remains in my opinion a commercial logging project, not a management program to reduce fire hazard or restore original stand structures. "

fire hazard reduction "could be best achieved by maintaining existing large conifers and actively clearing the understory of dead and flammable tanbark oak and other shrub species. None of this requires an NTMP."

Click here to read Rundel's comments.

Chron publishes new map showing extent of big trees

The San Francisco Chronicle recently published a new map showing the extent of trees with diameters over 40".

Click here to see the map.

Higgins says "revised NTMP is not significantly different"

Biologist repeats concerns about a salmon fishery on the brink of "extinction," tells CalFire his "concerns remain relevant and unaddressed."

Click here to read Higgins' letter.

Attorney Paul Carroll argues NTMP qualification not met

"The Act defines timberland as 'land…which is available for, and capable of, growing a crop of trees of any commercial species used to produce lumber and other forest products, including Christmas trees.' (§ 4526.) Nothing in this definition limits timberland to land whose timber is harvested commercially." Therefore conservation easement acreage should still be in total acreage tally.

Click here to read Carroll letter.

Carroll ties global warming issues to proposed logging

Click here to read Carroll's letter on how forests when allowed to flourish can sequester significant amounts of carbon. The Boho Grove is a case in point.

Sierra Club says "protection of old growth... remain(s) inadaquate"

Redwood Region rejects NTMP on a variety of grounds, sites vague references to "legacy trees" as inadequate protection

Click here to read Sierra Club letter.

Stake holders meet at CalFire on March 30, 2009

Second review hearing transcript reveals the bueaocratic wheels grinding - grist for the mill

Click here to read the full transcript.

WEAVING SPIDERS LOG NOT HERE
Resubmitted NTMP still an abomination...
after all these years!

● Timber harvest levels would triple with little oversight ● 40 percent of the larger conifers are scheduled for harvest ● Intensive herbicide use would continue ● Commercial logging still disguised as fire hazard reduction

(READ ANALYSIS)

GoogleEarth reveals logging scars
and resulting fire danger above encampment
(SEE THE MAP)

oldGrowthFire_01
Conservation Fund's '08 Fire Report shows old growth trees survive fires with little damage to top (overstory)
(READ IT)

2/2/10
Santa Rosa Press Democrat Reports on Sierra Club suit against CDF
~
Judge Bill Newsom calls NTMP app. a "thinly disquised plan..." to log "one of the last two great stands of old-growth"
~
Firefighter Rich Fairbanks says "most firefighters would laugh" at NTMP's "not credible" rationale for taking big trees
~
Congressman Paul N. "Pete" McCloskey
calls NTMP application "misleading and disingenuous"

April's Vanity Fair gets it right... calls
Bohemian Club's logging plan a "tragedy"!
(READ)

Video Interview with John Hooper

In this video, John describes the opportunity to preserve the largest unprotected old-growth stand in the San Francisco Bay Area and the ecological significance of the Bohemian grove.
(VIEW)

NTMP not required

In this 2 minute statement, John Hooper summarizes why the Bohemian Club's NTMP Application is not required if the Club is serious about old-growth redwood restoration... or is the Club's public posturing a disguise for their real intention: perpetual logging of the Bohemian Grove?
(VIEW)

Map of Old Growth Redwood and Douglas Fir Trees NOT shown in Club's NTMP published online

Over the years, Bohemian Club members have walked throughout the Bohemian Grove admiring the pristine old-growth trees (Redwood and Doug. Fir). Some have kept track of the whereabouts of these groves. This map shows some of the old-growth trees mysteriously excluded from the Club's so called "Non-Industrial" Timber Harvest Plan (NTMP).
(VIEW)

Bohemian Sages hear stump speech by forester Osterling

Grove Forester Ralph Osterling: “The goal now is, over time, to recreate the old forest that existed prior to clear-cutting and passive management. The resulting forest will be fire-safe and provide a legacy for current and future Bohemians.” - Oh really?? Is this why the current NTMP still calls for logging a million board feet per year, much of it large Douglas Fir and Redwood??
(READ)

~ Other Recent News ~

CA Dept. of Fish and Game documents reveal Bohemian Club meddling

It is highly unusual for a member of the public to intervene with a state employee. But the record shows that Pat Gilliigan, then Chair of the Grove Committee of the Bohemian Club, wrote Stacy Martinelli, DFG staff biologist, who had written a very critical report about the impacts of the Grove NTMP, asking her to send her report to the Director of DFG. CLICK HERE FOR MORE

9/14/08
National Geographic reporter suprised to find so few old-growth and second-growth redwood forests in California

Mike Fay, who is doing a major article for National Geographic about the coastal redwoods, recently reported on the state of California's redwoods. The "surprises" he identified are highlighted here:

"People asked us what our biggest surprise was. I would say for me they were three. This first was the vast and beautiful network of riparian old-growth redwood forests in Big Sur. The second was what amounts to the beginnings of a Marshall Plan of road and creek restoration that is happening on the ground. The third was the young age of the majority of redwood forests in the range."

As environmentalists have been saying for years, most redwood stands are very young. This is why the combined old-growth stands mixed with older (100-year-old) second growth redwood stands which compose most of the Bohemian Grove property are so rare and important to protect.

9/13/08
Botanist Peter Baye critiques Bohemian Club's forest studies

Botanist Peter Baye's comprehensive critique of the Bohemian Club's studies of plants, vegetation and endangered wildlife portrays a now familiar pattern on the part of the Bohemian Club of "failing to disclose critical information, submitting sloppy and incomplete studies and generally ignoring basic legal requirements." CLICK HERE FOR MORE

7/13/2008
Bohemian Club's latest ploy: Orchestrating a Bait and Switch

The Bohemian Club is secretly circulating a new NTMP among a selected few individuals in an effort to "pre-sell" a sanitized document which the public has no access to. This could be interpreted as good news, except for the fact that Grove forester Nick Kent was recently quoted in the media saying that the Bohemian Club now seeks to harvest 700,000 board feet of redwood and fir each year. This is half again as much as the historically destructive rate of 500,000 board feet per year which the Club has cut since 1984!

We have written both experts involved alerting them to the likelihood that they have been misled into commenting on a "phantom" document.

Click Here to read the letter exchange between Professor Stephen C. Sillett (Kenneth L. Fisher Chair in Redwood Forest Ecology - Humboldt State) and John Hooper.