Should Washington Move to a Draw Only Management for Yakima, Colockum, and Blues

[wildskywashington29]

Hello Everybody,
My name is Jacob Villasenor. I recently recorded a podcast with Dan Staton who is the owner of ElkShape. There we discussed how the current harvest management for quality managed Rocky Mountain Herds in Washington (Yakima, Colockum, & the Blues) has led to a degradation in hunter opportunity in the past 10 years. I understand that the herds have taken a hit in the past few years and even looked into the system prior to 2015 when the drought was followed by 2 hard winters.

Even in 2014 when things were about as good as they can get with the current system, the amount of hunters applying for tags vs how many tags were being allocated for branch bulls was low enough that even rifle hunters (who make up ~60% of the participating elk hunters) at the time could go their whole lives without drawing a tag early or late, even someone with close to max points!! The system broke somewhere in the late 2000s and eventually every applicant will have low odds of drawing a tag with little chance to increase their odds as point creep will continue to plague the bonus point system.

The problem is most of the bulls being harvested in these units are taken as 1 year olds and that population never gets to reach maturity. If we were to remove the general spike season along with other regulations to focus the huge hunting population here it is possible that we can maintain good odds of drawing tags even to the point where archery hunters may have the possibility to draw tags every 5 years, muzzy hunters every 10 years and rifle hunters every 10-25 years depending on the tag. If you think that was what was available before 2015 you're mistaken. I have a bunch of data that supports these arguments.

Also I have discovered that it seems that the survey techniques for determining Bull to Cow ratios in the Colockum and Yakima seem inefficient as well. It appears that the numbers may be higher than the department is reporting and would be detrimental to hunters to allow to continue as allocation of tags is dependent on most of the data that comes from these surveys. I'm not arguing that the numbers are down but rather that even in the good years the number of bulls being reported was likely lower than what was being reported and if it continues after these herds recover then it will continue to degrade hunter opportunity.

Please approach this discussion whether you support it or not with constructive feedback as I know not many people are content with the system as it sits now and nothing is going to change if don't even have the discussion. I look forward to seeing your comments and arguments!

[trophyhunt]

No, we should actually open the season up to match the tribes.

[huntnphool]

 Welcome to the site Jacob, put your seatbelt on.

[huntnfmly]

No, we should actually open the season up to match the tribes.

+1

[Magnum_Willys]

I thought it was draw only except spikes?   There are no spikes so doesn’t matter but yea if question is no spike tags yea do it. 

[ironbuck]

  Tribes just gonna shoot em all why spend a minute or a dime on it

[trophyhunt]

  Tribes just gonna shoot em all why spend a minute or a dime on it

yup, thas why we should share their season. And when there are no deer, elk left, things will change. If the tribes have nothing to hunt, they’ll be forced to negotiate. 

[Bullkllr]

What was the one about rearrangin' deck chairs?

Worked for steelhead.

[Skillet]

The poll is pretty biased. Should either be "yes" or "no", or you need to open it up with about 50 more reasons for each side.

 

[Mfowl]

I vote no, why give up an OTC opportunity? I agree that something needs to be done about the tribal individuals who exploit their rights.

[muleyslayer]

Hows it going jacob I just heard the podcast. I think you have some very valid points. I love the idea

[HillHound]

Yep like everyone is going to say tribes will shoot them all anyways. There’s no point in anything we do management wise because they don’t follow any of our restrictions. Anything we do to try to increase our opportunity will be taken advantage of by them long before we are ever able to reap the rewards. And as all will say this is the one group in the entire world that has inalienable rights no matter what. So I guess I would say I agree let’s just open it up to the same exact “season”as the tribes. Give it a year or two we will have almost no elk and they will be knocking on WDFW’s door to try to work with them.

[HUNTINCOUPLE]

Turn WA into the next New Mexico!!!!!!!!!!

[wildskywashington29]

No, we should actually open the season up to match the tribes.

My response to those talking about tribal hunting. As frustrating as it can be, tribal hunting isn't something we can change as non tribal WA hunters. For those of you frustrated they definitely haven't killed all the elk in the past there were plenty running around when I hunted OTC spikes in Yakima and they weren't the sole reason for the current numbers of rockies as it sits today. So opening up our seasons to match theirs (even though this would never happen) would destroy our elk herds in the eastern portion of the state. I don't think I would ever advocate that as it seems as effective as looting to make a statement about equality. That might be controversial but I'm not taking any of this to heart and will continue to discuss these changes and hope opportunity gets better here. 

[wildskywashington29]

I vote no, why give up an OTC opportunity? I agree that something needs to be done about the tribal individuals who exploit their rights.

Because what is being passed as OTC opportunity creates crowded woods and success rates that hover between .5-6% on the high end in most of these herds managed this way. Compared to other states that is nothing.