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Published December 30, 2008 Elk hunters want later elk seasonSCOTT SANDSBERRY In his heart, Curt Johnson is a big bull hunter. That’s the only kind of elk he really wants, and although he hunts every year, he has waited 10 years to draw that any-bull tag. This year, he got it. Life was good. But then, unfortunately, so was the weather. The area Johnson hunts in the Nile, he says, “I know like the back of my hand, I’ve been hunting there so long.” For 35 of his 47 years, in fact. Over the nine-day 2008 modern-firearm elk season that ended Nov. 2, though, Johnson saw a grand total of 10 elk. Only one was a male — a raghorn bull, a small 4-by-5. He shot it simply because he wasn’t seeing anything else and didn’t want to come away empty-handed.“It wasn’t what I wanted,” says Johnson, a Yakima resident. “I’d rather get something to fill my freezer than nothing at all, because I love the meat. Over the years I’ve shot plenty of elk, but it’s aggravating for me and my buddies.”What’s aggravating to those long-time hunters in the Cascade foothills west of Yakima is the timing of the season itself, which they say is simply too early.“I shot my bull elk in my tennis shoes and a T-shirt,” Johnson says. “In my tennis shoes. Give me a break.”Hollis Baughman, 72, of Yakima, has been hunting the Nile for 50 years. “We used to hunt in the snow,” Baughman says. “Now you can go out in a T-shirt. In that kind of weather, those animals just get in the deepest, darkest canyons they can find. I didn’t see nothin’ ... and I hunted hard, too.”A quarter-century ago, modern-firearm elk season in the game management units (GMUs) populated in winter by the Yakima herd ran from Nov. 1 to Nov. 18. In 1996 the general season dropped down to an 11-day season and then to nine days the following year, when the general hunt also reverted to spike-only because of poor bull-cow ratios in the herd.Steve Brulotte of Moxee, who has hunted Yakima-area elk since he was 8 years old, says he misses the old days of longer, later modern-firearm seasons.“The archery guys have got the best seasons of the year,” says Brulotte, 61. “They’ve got the rut in the deer season (Sept. 8-21) and then they’ve got the cold-weather season (Nov. 20-Dec. 8 ) for elk. “It’s sad when guys have cow (elk) permits and can’t fill ’em because they don’t see a cow the whole season. In general, the rifle guys have got the worst season of all.”Johnson agrees. “Everybody I talk to is so disgusted. Everybody’s pulling out early because they’re not seeing any animals — because the dates are wrong. Half my camp’s ready to quit hunting,” says Johnson, who believes the WDFW doesn’t do a good enough job of publicizing its meetings in a timely fashion so concerned hunters can plan to attend. Jerry Nelson, who heads up the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife deer and elk section, has heard all this before. He understands the hunters’ frustration, but he also has a job to do — and the statistics to verify just how difficult it is. “A lot of folks don’t know this and are really surprised by it,” he says. “Of the approximately 11 Western elk states, we are the smallest in landscape area, but the human population is second only to California, with well over 6 million now. We have approximately 50,000 to 55,000 elk, and we put roughly 90,000 elk hunters in the field this year — people who actually go out in the field.”In 2006, Washington had the western states’ highest congestion of active, in-the-field elk hunters —1.3 hunters for every elk. The next highest were Oregon (1.1 hunters for every elk), Colorado (0., Montana (0.7) and Idaho (0.6). Setting up deer and elk seasons, Nelson says, is “really two things. One is trying to fit all of the seasons into a finite calendar, and that includes deer and elk, and that includes archery, muzzleloader and modern firearm.”The other part, he says, is the vulnerability of the animal to excessive harvest. Were the elk season pushed back, he says, “Those numbers would go up and we’d ultimately be taking more elk than we want to kill.”Regional wildlife program manager Ted Clausing says having a single season in which the harvest numbers were higher than anticipated could result in a change in ensuing years.“There’s no question that for one or two years you could make a season where everybody’s happy and successful,” he says. “But if you had a real high success rate on bulls, you’d have to reduce that so your recruitment would hold up.” WDFW surveys routinely indicate that hunters prefer having the seasons fairly consistent, rather than changing from year to year. As a statewide group, hunters haven’t even shown a profound interest in the very issue that most irritates the Yakima elk hunters. A 2008 hunt-season survey question on whether to push the Yakima-area elk season back a week, so that it would run through the first week of November, drew only tepid response. Of nearly 4,000 respondents, 36.1 percent favored pushing the season back into early November, while 34.8 percent opposed it; the remaining 29.1 percent responded that they had no preference.That may be because of hunters like Yakima’s Steve Calhoun, 50, who packs in by horseback to hunt in the higher elevations of the Norse Peak Wilderness. He doesn’t want to see a later season because there would simply be too much snow. “In the old days you could get a foot of snow in the high country and the elk would stay for a few days,” he says. “Now there isn’t even any snow on the south slopes and they’re already heading for the feed stations. First weather, they’re heading out.”This year, the high-country weather cooperated, and Calhoun’s group had plenty of elk-hunting opportunity. Still, he can commiserate with the hunters in the lower elevations who came away empty-handed this year.“I used to hunt in those lower areas,” he says, “and if I hadn’t started hunting in this Norse Peak area, I’d be like everybody else: I’d want the seasons later.”
WELL WITH ALL THE MEMBERS ON THIS SITE IF WE ALL BAND TOGETHER AND NOT BUY LINCES AND TAGS FOR ONE YEAR WE COULD MAKE THEM FEEL THE PAIN. BUT I DONT THINK THAT WILL HAPPEN. :twocents:J
Make it to where if a land owner does not give permission to hunt his land....then they do not get damage money!
Take the Teanaway late season tags this year! There are 100 cow tags and I believe 15 bull tags! I only know of one elk for sure taken out of this unit! All of the pet elk are down on privet land being fed by the locals.....people who would rather see elk die of starvation and predation....than see a hunter get his animal! At the first sight of snow...the elk all dropped down into town where they could be safe and sound and fed good by the land owners!My main question would be....why does our AMAZING game department give out tags to an area that they know is mostly privet....and that they know the history of the locals not allowing people to harvest animals? Do they really want us to harvest any of these elk?? Or is it what I think....They get our money pre season....than to hell with us!
If you want a better quality hunt, we are going to have to go all permit and that means some of those 55,000 elk hunters are staying home. Maybe never to go again.
While that may suit you fine, it does mean fewer hunters and even less of a voice in the public arena. I understand wanting to see fewer people in the field. However, we also need a strong voice in politics because unfortunately, in this state,wildlife management is partially dictated by politics..
Too bad something isn't written about how we feel about tribal hunting rights or something.
Just stubled upon this..... HOGWASH! If he doesn't like it, quite applying. Its PLENTY late. Then what, push the archery guys into hunting even later into December.....doesn't matter. He is either a hunter and knows that seeing 10 elk is a possibility or he needs to become a better hunter. I love how one voice somehow gets broadcasted as this is what we all think. Too bad something isn't written about how we feel about tribal hunting rights or something.
