GUEST COMMENTARY
Save the old-growth redwoods
Published: Thursday, May 8, 2008
By BETH GRIMES
A few weeks before Earth Day was a sad time for us to learn of the San Fran-cisco-based Bohemian Club’s plan to get permission for extensive logging in Bohemian Grove. This grove adjacent to Monte Rio is graced by the presence of Sonoma County’s last portion of ancient redwoods.
According to San Francisco Chronicle environment writer Jane Kay, the Bohemians want to donate a 160-acre conservation easement to the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation in Montana (Montana?!) as a way to get around the state forestry rule that what the club wants can be granted only to owners of less than 2,500 acres of timber. In a letter to the Chron, printed April 11, Jay Mancini, president of the Bohemian Club, claims that the Bozos — excuse me — Bohos want to log a million board-feet annually out of a desire “to safeguard human life and property ... without a sensible forest management plan, the risk of a catastrophic wildfire will increase with every year of delay.”
They are merely motivated by concern for human life, of course. Their own interests have nothing to do with it.
John Hooper, a former member who resigned from the Bohemian Club because he could not support the plan, referred to the proposal as “... nothing more than a stratagem to obtain logging rights.” He further said that the proposed 160-acre easement “protects nothing that was not already protected ...”
Most members of the Bohemian Club are good men. But a few decision-makers evidently do not believe rules that apply to other landowners also apply to them.
For the benefit of readers who may not know about the Bohemian Grove summer encampment, it is a retreat for about 2,000 men, including captains of industry, banking and finance, together with influential public figures and government leaders. It was described by Dr. G. William Domhoff of the University of California as “the greatest men’s party in the world.”
The Bohemian Club maintains that the guys and guests who attend the summer bash are there strictly to get away from the heavy burdens of their everyday responsibilities. According to their public statements, the encampment simply affords an opportunity for them to fraternize with other men who, like themselves, are “devoted to literature, art, music and the drama.”
The opening ceremony of each encampment, called the Cremation of Care, is intended to express attendees’ intention to leave everyday cares behind them for the duration of the campout. The ceremony takes place at night before a 45-foot tall concrete owl. An effigy of “Dull Care” is placed on an altar before the owl and burned by men in dark hooded robes. The ceremony’s location is surrounded by the majestic old trees of the grove. The setting must add to the impact of this ritual.
How could the Bohemian Club’s officers even consider destroying so much beauty? Once gone, these redwoods will be gone forever.
Most of us cherish our remaining stands of trees. Don’t we want all of our old- growth redwoods to be there for our children? And their children? Don’t we want them to still have the groves to walk in, to enjoy their beauty and to find spiritual renewal? Don’t Bohemian Club members want the same thing their own children and grandchildren?
If enough of us speak out to object and say we want the ancient forests preserved — all of them — perhaps remaining redwoods can be saved for future generations. Please write a letter for the Bohemian Grove file (1-06-NTMP-011SON) and send it to the Department of Forestry, 135 Ridgeway Ave., Santa Rosa 95401 or e-mail to santarosapubliccomment@ fire.ca.gov.
(Beth Grimes is a 39-year resident of Petaluma who spent her working years as an accountant. She is co-founder of Advocates for Equality and a member of Veterans for Peace.)
