Outdoor enthusiasts who recreate on Galbraith Mountain will need to find another trail system on Dec. 4-6, because Galbraith Tree Farm and Polygon will be the scene of a private bow hunt to manage the deer population.
The three-day closure includes most trails on Galbraith. The northern portion of the trail network falls outside property owned by the two tree farms.
Whatcom Mountain Bike Coalition, or WMBC, is licensed by the City of Bellingham as the Galbraith Trail Manager and often serves as a liaison between the outdoor community and Janicki Logging, the company that manages the tree farm operations. WMBC first announced the pending closure on Nov. 18 and will be responsible for marking the trails to alert users of the closure.
In its announcement on Nov. 22, Janicki Logging, the company that manages Galbraith Tree Farm, elaborated on the closure. Janicki Logging explained that in recent years, deer browsing in logged areas that have been replanted has resulted in more than $100,000 of losses in young cedar saplings for both tree farms on Galbraith Mountain. The overpopulation has also attracted more mountain lions and other predators to the area, the statement says.
Janicki Logging added that the hunting group will be composed of licensed participants, and all safety protocols will be enforced. The hunt is a trial to test the effectiveness of the measure.
Since 2018, the City of Bellingham has held a recreational use and conservation easement on Galbraith Mountain that covers 2,182 acres of the privately owned land. The easement is adjacent to 4,250 acres of public land managed by Whatcom County.
Hunting is not allowed on any city-owned property, David Brauhn, Bellingham’s Assistant Communications and Community Relations Director wrote in an email to Cascadia Daily News, but Galbraith Tree Farm and Polygon are not city-owned property.
The recreation and conservation easement does not prohibit hunting, Brauhn clarified. Licensed hunting is allowed on private property and is an authorized forest practice to protect saplings from overgrazing.
Timber operations are permitted and regulated by the state Department of Natural Resources, not the city. Game management is not specifically called out as a practice specific to commercial forestry in the DNR forest practice rules, but state law allows the killing of wildlife that is damaging property or crops, with limits. The state Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW), which oversees hunting licenses, issued more than 18,000 deer tags for archers in 2023. Washington’s late archery season for black-tailed deer is open in Game Management Unit 407 (which includes Galbraith) from Nov. 27 through Dec. 15.
Chase Gunnell, the WDFW Communications Manager, said the Galbraith hunt “appears to be a private landowner temporarily changing their access policies to allow for increased hunting access during a pre-existing state archery deer season. That’s within their authority to do so as a landowner.”
Gunnell added that the black-tailed deer population in western Whatcom County is abundant, which can cause issues for the gardeners and motorists who often come in contact with urban deer.
This article was updated on Nov. 25 at 3 p.m. to include information from WDFW.
Julia Tellman writes about civic issues and anything else that happens to cross her desk; contact her at juliatellman@cascadiadaily.com.
