Outdoors

POSTED: Thursday, Nov. 05, 2009

HUNTING: Westside elk hunts begin Saturday

Holders of westside modern firearms elk tags begin their 11-day pursuit of Rocky Mountain and Roosevelt species in selected game management units west of the Cascade Range on Saturday, Nov. 7.

This first full weekend of November could nominally be construed as the halfway point in 2009 elk hunting seasons. With the Eastern Washington modern firearms season closing, Western Washington's starting up, and late options for archery and blackpowder tag holders, with several exceptions are yet to come.

No matter where they occur, elk spark concern if not outright controversy among a broad spectrum of interests because of their tendency to stray into agricultural areas. They also are known to travel corridors and in some regions prompt the need for management plans between the state and treaty tribes.

No less important considerations in the establishment of annual hunting seasons are the species' breeding biology and habitat requirements, which often strongly influence allowable hunter hunting to keep herds within target age composition and breeding success parameters.

A third major axis upon which elk hunt success hinges is access to private and public lands where the animals roam.

Besides ensuring equitable treaty and non-treaty hunts, opportunities in Western Washington, like those on the east side of the Cascades, are arrayed to ensure stable core herds while dealing with errant bands of elk.

Here's a look at westside elk opportunities:

EASTERN PUGET SOUND

The Olympia to Canadian border corridor holds two of this state's 10 managed elk aggregations - the North Rainier and North Cascade (Nooksack) herds.

All three are jointly managed by the area treaty tribes and the fish and wildlife department. Hunting by both treaty and non-treaty hunters is significantly curtailed under current management plans to foster rebuilding of core herd numbers.

For the modern rifle elk season, only GMUs 407, 448, 460, 652 and 654 will be open under a three-point minimum restriction for lawful-to-bag animals. They are peripheral to core herd units 418, 437, 450 and 653 that will remain closed for the general hunt.

Special drawing hunts for Nooksack elk are allowing a small number of branch-antlered bulls as the herd continues to rebuild.

GMU 454, the highly developed "front-country" Issaquah Unit, will be the only Puget Sound unit open under an "any bull" bag rule.

Hunters who have done pre-season scouting have the best chance of getting the few mature bulls present among the sparse numbers of elk in these GMUs.

Access to private timberland also will be difficult with many roads remaining gated to ban motor vehicle access.

SOUTHWEST WASHINGTON INTERIOR

Westside elk hunters have perhaps their best chance of bagging an elk in Southwest Washington in its 500 level GMUs. Bag rules vary by unit but allow the taking of "any elk" or "either antlerless and three-point minimum" animals.

Core Mount Saint Helens and South Rainier GMUs are expected to be good producers of mature bulls, but the three-point minimum rule holds down harvests during modern firearm season.

WDFW district biologists say that a favorable convergence of last year's relatively mild winter that fostered good calf survival and early snows this fall, which are helping to push animals from the high country, bode well for elk hunters.

OLYMPIC PENINSULA AND COAST

Two 600 GMUs - the Williams Creek and North River units, on the ocean side of the Willapa Hills - are being commended to elk hunters for the general season.

Both of these prime elk units, too, are governed by the spike-bull-protecting, three-point or better restriction.

Elsewhere in WDFW's Region 6, GMU 621 on the peninsula's northeast side in the Sequim-west Hood Canal area, where a band of elk have perpetually wandered into the Highway 101 corridor, will be closed.

ONE MORE WEEK

Eastside general season elk tag holders have an extra week to stalk smaller numbers of animals on prime deer-managed ground in north central Washington and on the east side of the Columbia River on Douglas County's dry-land wheat and reclamation ground.

Lands in these 200 GMUs, with the extra seven elk hunt days, are a mixed bag of private and public, making access problematic. Successful hunters not only will have zeroed in on these small, widely scattered groups of elk, but also will have obtained landowner permission to get at them.

Hunters with eastside muzzleloader and archery elk tags are permitted to hunt these 200 units this coming week too.

Bow and blackpowder elk hunters with unfilled tags good for either east or west zone get their last hurrah during traditional late hunts in selected GMUs statewide, generally beginning Wednesday, Nov. 25.

Doug Huddle, the Herald's outdoors correspondent, is retired from the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and has written a weekly column hunting and fishing column that appears Fridays. E-mail him at doug.huddle@bellinghamherald.com.