Bohemian Club may be trying environmental 'end run'

The donation of a 160-acre conservation easement of Bohemian Grove property to a Montana foundation seems like a generous offer, but local environmental groups say it's a ruse by the Bohemian Club to get around California logging restrictions.

The Sierra Club's Redwood Chapter says the San Francisco-based men's club is trying to jettison enough of its land holdings to fall under the 2,500-acre threshold that triggers extensive and expensive environmental reviews. The Bohemian Club has a pending application for large-scale logging in the grove near Monte Rio that historically has been estimated at about 2,700 acres.

"It's an end run, that's what we think is going on," said Jay Halcomb, a Monte Rio resident who heads the Sierra Club's forest protection committee. "The (Bohemian) Club is seeking to effectively reduce its forest ownership with a conservation easement in order to qualify for this particular type of logging plan."

Earlier this week, the local Sierra Club asked the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation to "reject the easement proposal in the interests of true, not merely seeming, forest conservation."

Bohemian Club managers were not available for comment Friday, but they've told the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation they want to grant the easement in order to safeguard old-growth redwoods. The easement would cover 109 acres containing the lake, all the cabins and the central camp structures, and 54 acres called the Upper Bull Barn.

The all-male club is famous for its annual gatherings in the woods along the Russian River that attract some of the world's richest and most famous personalities. Its super-secret atmosphere has lent the two-week event a measure of intrigue as protesters ritually blast the conclave as an anachronistic assemblage of power brokers and policy wonks.

Officials with the Montana foundation, a 25-year-old organization devoted to the preservation of elk and its habitat, said they are considering the Sonoma County Sierra Club chapter's request. Foundation officials said they are studying the easement proposal, which was initiated by the Bohemian Club, and they aren't sure when they'll have a decision.

"It is in progress, and our folks are chewing on it," said Bob Hammond, the foundation's Western lands manager, who says he's visited Bohemian Grove a half dozen times already. "There is something almost spiritual about those trees."

Although the foundation is dedicated to elk preservation and based in Missoula, Hammond said the group has about 700,000 acres through easement or purchase and is also concerned with other rare species like the spotted owl and the marbled murrelet.

"We know the nearest elk is probably at Point Reyes," Hammond said. "Our bottom line is that we look at the resources at risk and the willingness of the landowner to work with us."

The state Department of Forestry has an April 10 hearing scheduled to consider the Bohemian Club's logging application based on its property falling under the 2,500-acre limit.

Forestry officials said they first will have to determine whether the Bohemian Club property is eligible for the expedited logging permit process available to noncommercial logging operations before ruling on details of the club's logging plans.

You can reach Staff Writer Bleys W. Rose at 521-5431 or bleys.rose@pressdemocrat.com.