Several Galbraith Mountain biking trails closed for timber project road building
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Logging crew closed top-of-mountain trails for road construction; reopening next week.
- Janicki Logging built two access roads and will run heavy truck traffic during work.
- DNR sale covers 48.1 acres; 6.5 acres set as leave-tree areas; replanting planned.
A logging project at Galbraith Mountain in Bellingham has forced trail closures at the top of the mountain so roads can be built in the area.
The roads should be finished by next week, and the plan is to reopen the trails to the public until logging begins around next spring, Johnny Janicki of Janicki Logging told The Herald in an email Tuesday. However, Janicki said they will be monitoring the logging markets on a month-by-month basis.
The logging area includes about 12 acres that are part of the Lake Whatcom watershed, which prevents any projects from taking place between Nov. 1 and Mar. 31, according to the city’s rules regarding seasonal restrictions for the Lake Whatcom Reservoir.
Two roads are being built so equipment can make it up to the logging area, Janicki told The Herald in an Aug. 25 interview. He said there will be a lot of trucks heading up the mountain during the construction of the roads.
Janicki Logging paid $700,000 for right to log the Junia Timber Sale at Galbraith Mountain during a DNR auction in January.
Although the timber sale is for 48.1 acres, 6.5 acres are being saved as leave-tree areas, as part of forest conservation, according to the DNR. That translates to around eight leave trees per acre of forest harvested. The goal of the leave trees is to retain some manor of wildlife habitat and biological legacy, as is required by the DNR state lands habitat conservation plan.
The closure began Sept. 30, and includes trails Evolution, Scorpion, Swirlz, Wraparound, Tower Trail, Wonderland (upper), Das Autobahn (upper) and Whoopsie Woodle (upper), according to signs posted in the area by the Whatcom Mountain Biking Coalition, which provides a detailed map of trails at its website.
About 2 miles of the mountain’s 65 miles of recreational trials will be affected by the closure, according to the DNR.
Sales and Project Manager David Janicki told The Herald in August that his company has been waiting to log the top of Galbraith, in part, until after the start of school in September, as the mountain is popular with mountain bikers.
“We know that mountain pretty well and have a good relationship with the bikers, and it’s just a zoo up there during the summer,” David Janicki said. “We try to be respectful and cognizant of the popularity and traffic on the mountain.”
When logging does start in the spring, it will hopefully take about two months to finish, but there will be a lot of variables with logging, David Janicki said.
Following the harvest, portions of the timber sale area will be replanted with about 360 trees per acre with a mix of species, according to the DNR.
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