West Klickitat Late elk

[Salmonmoocher12]

The last two years there has been more logging in the NFS around Trout Lake than I have seen in the last 20 years. This logging should add a bunch of winter/spring feed for the elk that move down into the area to winter.

I have not seen any logging in the GPNF in over 20 years, only some select thinning but no clear cutting.

[444Marlin]

Lots of clear cuts on the private timber land.  SDS, Hancock and some others.
And clear cuts on the res.  The thinning in the NF helps too.

Lots of full timber trucks running up and down HWY 141.

[KDB]

I can’t speak to the change in herd size. But SDS has been closing more and more land down to the public. Others have said kreps did the same but all there land has been no trespassing for the time I have lived down here. And they have a lot of good hunting landlocked.

[b0bbyg]

The last two years there has been more logging in the NFS around Trout Lake than I have seen in the last 20 years. This logging should add a bunch of winter/spring feed for the elk that move down into the area to winter.

I have not seen any logging in the GPNF in over 20 years, only some select thinning but no clear cutting.

I have been hunting the GPNF for less than 15 years and there are several clear cuts that are new since I started hiking in there.  Also several areas that were thinned as well. I don't know how much is needed to help in recovery but there is some that is being logged.   

[444Marlin]

I've been pretty upset about the decline in that unit and the surrounding area as it was one of my favorite places to go.  To me it's been a combination of "Loving it to Death" by many of us who like to hunt there - and the perfect storm of the other factors I mentioned before.

I'm going to stop hunting there for a few years and pray for the herd to recover.  I'm sad about not hunting there, but I'm looking forward to learning new areas.

[dilleytech]

I've been pretty upset about the decline in that unit and the surrounding area as it was one of my favorite places to go.  To me it's been a combination of "Loving it to Death" by many of us who like to hunt there - and the perfect storm of the other factors I mentioned before.

I'm going to stop hunting there for a few years and pray for the herd to recover.  I'm sad about not hunting there, but I'm looking forward to learning new areas.

A massive cougar and black bear population is the main reason for the decline. If you want to improve hunting come hunt predators.

[444Marlin]

A massive cougar and black bear population is the main reason for the decline. If you want to improve hunting come hunt predators.

Yep.  I've crossed a few cougar tracks in the past few years.  But at my peak of the 'glory days' in that unit, I saw bear tracks everywhere.  I saw more sign of bears then than I do now.  They were thick!
I don't agree its the main reason for the decline.  But I agree that it's a significant contributing factor.  I admit, I have no data to back that up.