So a little about my self. I was born and raised in kittitas and my family once owned a small ranch in unit 329. So i grew up hunting deer and elk in those sagebrush hills. I started hunting my self in 1993 and shot my first buck at the top of little park in 1995. In 1997 the WDFW closed unit 329 to deer hunting except for permits. Ive been watching this deer herd with its ups and downs for nearly 20 years now since the closure.
This year in search of a cow elk for my daughter we stepped into the sagebrush for a little less than 2 days. I cant remember ever seeing so many mature bucks in such a short amount of time. In two days we saw about 50 deer, and over 25 of them were bucks. and out of that 15 of them were 3pt or bigger. Everywhere we looked we found deer. The amount of ground we covered was minimal compared to the size of the unit.
So i ask this. At what point is this unit considered recovered? How many deer does it take? The WDFW keeps lowering the amount of quality permits for the unit, why?
