White River GMU

[Ridgerunner]

Has anyone hunted this GMU recently?  I know in the early 90's the herds were destroyed by tribal harvests, has it come back? 

[WDFW-SUX]

I know the Indians still hunt it pretty hard nothing like a modern season in August to get the season started....

[Crunchy]

I hunted it hard for a couple of years until it went permit only.  I've seen elk but only cows.  I dont know if I'd waste permit points on that unit.  I'd wait and see what the harvest report says for that unit.  If I remember its nothing too exciting.

[Ridgerunner]

I drew a big bull tag in Yakima area last year, timing wise the westside season works out better for me this year, was thinking about putting it down as a fourth choice, maybe I'd get lucky with a park bull.  So I'm not out any points if I draw, if I had any I would probably steer clear.

[furface]

We lived up past Greenwater for over 15 years. We moved Closer to Enumclaw almost two years ago. I know the unit very well.
To start with it wasn’t necessarily over harvest by the tribes that did in the herds. [It didn’t help any either]
What really did in the elk was banning hound hunting cats and bear. The elk heard went from around 650 animals to 150 in just a few of years. The Muckelshoot Tribe started a radio collar study of the elk in the White and Green River drainages to see what were happening to them. The first year they collard 30 sum odd bulls. This really didn’t show them anything at all. The next year they collard cows. This was a dead end also. The third year they collard 32 calves. Only three of the calves survived over three months. What they found was that cougars were finding them and making the kill, but as soon as they were dead the bears were coming in and taking away the kill so the cats had to go kill again.
The Muckelshoot tribe now has paid hound hunters but they only target cats.

No, there are not many elk in the unit. I am going to put in for the White River any bull Muzzleloader tag as my first choice anyway. But that is just because it is my backyard and I know the unit so well.