Media Contact Sam Singer

For Immediate Release (415) 227-9700

 

San Francisco’s Historic Bohemian Club Files Revised Timber Management Plan

Plan Will Reduce Fire Risk, Restore Forest at Club’s Bohemian Grove Property in Sonoma County

 

San Francisco, Calif. (February 25, 2009) – The Bohemian Club filed today a revised application for a Non-industrial Timber Management Plan (NTMP) with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal-Fire) which will reduce fire risk at the Bohemian Grove and alleviate crowded forest conditions.

The plan applies to 2,300 acres at the Bohemian Grove, a rustic retreat owned by the Bohemian Club near Monte Rio in Sonoma County. The proposal to selectively harvest over a 20-year cycle an overcrowded section of this forest will allow the replanting of redwood seedlings and reduce the threat of a destructive wildfire to old growth trees and surrounding property. 

The Bohemian Club also has finalized a conservation easement at the Bohemian Grove which will preserve in perpetuity old growth redwood and Douglas-fir trees on 163 acres made off limits to any commercial harvesting operations.

“For more than a century, the Bohemian Club has worked to restore these forests, which had been clear-cut prior to the Club’s acquisition of this property,” said Jay Mancini, President of the Bohemian Club. “We have worked diligently with Cal-Fire, the California Department of Fish & Game and the Water Quality Control Board to craft a plan that limits the real risk of a fire in Sonoma County, protects wildlife and the environment and allows us to manage our property responsibly for the long term. Our members are passionate about protecting the large and old growth trees at the Bohemian Grove and this plan gives us the means to achieve that goal.”

Any revenue generated by timber harvesting will be re-invested in forest restoration at the Bohemian Grove, where the Club has been planting 15,000 redwood seedlings annually as part of the effort to return this property to a more natural state. The Club’s NTMP is projected to result in the reduction of more than 254,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions over the lifetime of the plan.  

The Bohemian Club’s NTMP is supported by experts in the field of fire prevention, environmental protection and forest management. These experts have reviewed the plan and toured the property. Among them is one of the world’s foremost authorities on redwood trees, Professor Stephen Sillett of Humboldt State University.

“The management plan being implemented by the Bohemian Club protects large redwood and Douglas-fir trees throughout the property,” Professor Sillett concluded in a June 13, 2008 letter sent to Cal-Fire. Numerous prominent Club members who take a keen interest in the environment are supportive as well, including renowned musician Bob Weir who concluded that “this plan represents optimal forest restoration” in his letter on file with state officials.

The Bohemian Club was founded in 1872 by a group of writers, musicians and performers seeking to encourage cultural activities in San Francisco. The Bohemian Grove, a former logging site, was acquired by the Bohemian Club more than 100 years ago and is in the process of being restored to its natural state.

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