Jul 12, 2007 8:51 pm US/Pacific
Secret Society Wants To Log N. Bay Redwood Grove
MONTE RIO (AP) ―
Members of the Bohemian Club have begun arriving for the secret society's annual male-bonding session next to the Russian River.
But the club's directors are facing a public battle with environmentalists, who want to block a plan to log the surrounding redwood forest in Sonoma County.
The club wants a special logging permit to cut more than 1 million board feet per year in perpetuity in the Bohemian Grove in Monte Rio, about 70 miles north of San Francisco.
The club says the plan would decrease wildfire risks, but scientists say the plan would degrade habitat and give the club cutting rights with inadequate oversight. A public hearing is expected in late summer.
Members of the 135-year-old club have included Charles Schwab, Colin Powell, Donald Rumsfeld, Henry Kissinger, Walter Cronkite and every Republican president in the last century.
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