GOLD BAR — Bullets have been flying through the woods east of Gold Bar and now officials are limiting access.
Vehicles have been banned from a forest road that leads to a popular hiking trail out of concerns about target shooters.
Proctor Creek Road, or Forest Service Road 62, which provides access to the Mount Persis trailhead was closed Thursday until the problems with target shooters can be resolved, officials with the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest said.
“It’s a war zone out there,” said Steve Tift, a tree farm manager for Longview Timber, the company that owns the forest land.
The area is south of U.S. 2 about five miles east of Gold Bar, said Renee Bodine, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Forest Service.
Recently, there have been several encounters with target shooters, Tift said. Contractors have nearly been shot.
Workers found evidence that people are shooting assault rifles and what may be other automatic weapons. They’ve found dumped garbage and other vandalism the company is blaming on target shooters.
While the Forest Service maintains the road, the surrounding land is owned by the timber company.
Now, the timber company has locked the gate at the entrance to the road, preventing vehicles, but not hikers, from entering the area.
“We welcome hikers, and we don’t mind mountain bikers or horseback riders. We just don’t want target shooters,” Tift said.
Local geography doesn’t always provide backstops for target shooting, forest officials said. Instead target shooters often use trees and vegetation as backstops. The shooters may not realize there may be a trailhead or hikers within range.
Unsafe target shooting has been a growing problem on national forest lands in Western Washington. Officials closed roads along the I-90 corridor earlier this summer to stem the problem, Bodine said.
Federal rules prohibit discharging firearms within 150 yards of a residence, building, campsite, developed recreation site or occupied area. Violators can be fined up to $5,000 or locked up for half a year.
Problems between hikers and people using firearms can have deadly consequences.
On Aug. 2, a hiker, Pamela Almli, 54 of Oso, was killed on a Sauk Mountain trail in Skagit County. A teenage hunter said he mistook Almli for a bear. The teen was sentenced to 30 days in juvenile detention after being convicted of second-degree manslaughter.
Officials said the Proctor Creek Road closure is only temporary.
For information regarding the closure, call 360-677-2414, ext. 648.
Jackson Holtz: 425-339-3437, jholtz@heraldnet.com
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