Elk herds peaking on West Side

Elk hunting is steeped in tradition, which partially explains why a lot of Eastern Washington sportsmen continue searching this region for eligible elk while most of the state’s elk-hunting success is in Western Washington.

Holy Back Straps! That might seem sacrilegious to anyone who hunted the Blue Mountains or Yakima region 25 years ago. But it’s the truth:

Washington’s Region 5, which includes the Mount St. Helens and Willapa Hills areas, produces more general season elk than all the Eastern Washington regions combined.

There’s more than one way to look at the shift:

“If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. I like the idea of being able to shoot any bull with three points or better. Where do I get a good Cowlitz County map?

“It’s more peaceful now in the Blues and even near Yakima, as fewer hunters invade the East Side for the elk opener.

■Fewer hunters apply for the some of the coveted special permits for branch-antlered bull elk, which is the best ticket to experiencing the good ol’ days of East Side elk hunting.

Statewide modern-firearm general season success rates are about 9 percent, since most hunting areas restrict hunter to shooting only spike bulls. But hunters who draw special permits see their success rates jump to about 47 percent, which equates with some of the best hunting in Idaho.

Here’s the general scenario:

St. Helens-area elk herds boomed in recent years on land recovering from the volcanic eruption and massive timber harvesting. As the landscape changes, the elk are overpopulated. A significant elk reduction is proposed to begin next season. That may be the window of opportunity for the best odds in drawing a special elk tag.

Yakima region elk have gone through a similar reduction from about 12,000 to 9,500 animals in the past few years, and cow permits now are more scarce. The Fish and Wildlife Department continues to keep hunters excited about the region by offering a good number of branch-antlered bull permits.

The Colockum herd, however, is still about 1,000 animals below department goals for a herd of 4,500. Few bull permits and no cow permits were offered for that area northeast of Ellensburg again this year.

“As always, the hunting here is weather dependent,” said Ted Clausing, department regional biologist in Yakima. “Last year we had two or three good snow storms in Yakima units and the animals were on the move. Hunters who could stay in the woods had a good harvest.”

The Oak Creek area is the center of the Yakima herd’s activity and thus is a magnet for hunters.

“The herd that comes out of the Little Naches into the Wenas or Manastash will go into the Bethel and Bumping units (where winter feeding occurs) with the right conditions,” Clausing said. “It’s a good place to be if there’s enough snow to get a serious migration going.

“If there’s no snow, the hunters just mill around and bump into each other. They’d be better off hunting 15 miles fartherwest at the fringes of the wilderness areas.

Blue Mountains hunters will find that fire has charred its way through another 100,000 acres this summer, adding to the 30,000 acres that burned last summer.

“Fire has affected about two thirds of the Dayton Unit, most of the Tucannon unit and some of the Blue Creek unit in these two years,” said Pat Fowler, department wildlife biologist in Walla Walla. “It’s too early to tell how this will affect hunters and elk management. The archery season is open and the fires are still burning. Most of the public access to the Umatilla National Forest in Washington is closed.

“I feel sorry for the hunters who waited years to draw a special permit and this is the year they got one,” he said, noting that the state had doubled the number of branch-antlered bull permits this year outside the Watershed unit. “The Wenaha unit should still be OK, but the Dayton unit is hit hard. That means 750 head of elk will need a place to go.”

A few hunters are going to find out, and they’ll probably consider this one of the best seasons ever.

The worst-case scenario is that the elk wind up on private agricultural lands and force a reduction in the herd, Fowler said.