PAST ISSUES
2005
2004
2003
2002
2001
2000

Changes in Deer and Elk Hunter Participation
and Success in Yakima and Kittitas Counties (District 8)
Jeff Bernatowitz, District 8 Wildlife Biologist

Going into the 2003 hunting seasons, a new challenge was given to District Wildlife Biologists: attempt to equalize district hunter participation and success with the statewide proportions, by user group, over the next 3 years. The idea was to provide sufficient opportunity for all groups so that participation would mimic statewide levels. This is an interesting task as trying to predict what hunters will do with regulation changes and how successful they will be is not easy. The 2003 and 2004 hunting seasons provided some interesting numbers.

For deer, going into the 2003 season, the goal was to try to increase the proportion of muzzleloader deer hunters and increase the success of archers. To entice muzzleloader deer hunters, four more game management units (GMUs) were open for the general season and 60 antlerless permits were issued. The result? Muzzleloader hunters increased by over 500% to near the statewide average. However, muzzleloaders deer hunter success is still below objective.

Modern firearm deer hunters increased by about 1,000 or 10%, but were off set by increases in muzzleloader and archery hunters. The main change for modern firearm hunters was moving GMU 342 from permit only to a general season. In addition, 125 antlerless permits and 25 late buck permits were issued. Antlerless permits were also added for seniors, youth, and hunters with disabilities.

Table 1
	2000-02 Statewide Participation	2000-2002 District Participation	2003 District Participation	2004 District Participation	2003-04 Average Participation	2000-2002 Harvest Proportion	2003 Harvest Proportion	2004 Harvest Proportion	2003-04 Average Harvest
Archery	12	20.9	24.5	21.6	23.1	10.0	33.1	19.7	26.4
Muzzleloader	5	1.5	6.5	6.9	6.7	1.7	4.4	3.8	4.1
Modern	83	77.5	68.9	71.3	70.1	88.3	62.3	76.3	69.3

In 2003, archers were allowed to take antlerless deer for the first time since 1997 and four GMUs were added to the late season. An additional 1,200 people hunted the archery season. The archery deer regulation change went too far, in 2003, archers took 33%of the deer while comprising 24% of the hunters. In an attempt to correct for the high harvest, 15 days of antlerless opportunity were removed from the early season and deer archery hunter success declined to near the goal.

There have been mild winters since 1996-97 with an increasing deer herd. Typically we get a hard winter every eight to ten years that results in significant declines in deer numbers. In anticipation of the next hard winter, the harvest of antlerless deer is being increased in 2005. All user groups saw a large increase in antlerless deer opportunity in 2005. It will be interesting to see the result as there have not been large numbers of antlerless deer permits in the area for 30-40 years.

Table 2
	2000-02 Statewide Participation	2000-2002 District Participation	2003 District Participation	2004 District Participation	2003-04 Average Participation	2000-2002 Harvest Proportion	2003 Harvest Proportion	2004 Harvest Proportion	2003-04 Average Harvest
Archery	17	14.9	16.3	13.5	14.9	17.4	18.9	11.5	15.2
Muzzleloader	13	14.2	10.4	10.5	10.5	19.6	12.5	12.0	12.2
Modern	70	70.9	73.2	75.9	74.5	63.0	68.5	76.5	72.5

For District 8 elk hunters, the main goal was to increase antlerless harvest for modern firearm hunters, but not necessarily shift hunter numbers. Archers were not asked to reduce harvest even though success rates were fairly high (Table 2). Muzzleloaders had a high success rate because of open general season antlerless opportunity, most of which was in damage areas. To achieve the goals, the damage areas (3911 and 3912) were open to AHE master hunters (any tag) and more antlerless permit opportunity was given to modern firearm hunters. In addition, GMU 346 was eliminated as an any elk late muzzleloader hunt and damage hunt areas 3911 and 3912 were converted to AHE hunts. At the same time, 5 new muzzleloader units were open for spike bull hunting general seasons with branch antler bull by permit and 750 antlerless permits were issued. The net result of all the changes appeared to be hunters switching from muzzleloader to modern firearm, although those who stayed with muzzleloaders still enjoy a fairly high success rate.

Archers also received an unexpected reduction in antlerless elk opportunity in the Colockum, 2004, as herd goals were not being met. The reduction in antlerless opportunity for archers in the Colockum reduced their proportion of harvest in 2004 over the District, but it averaged out a high success rate in 2003. There was an obvious shift of archers from the Colockum to Yakima GMUs.

“Tweaking” of season and opportunity are likely to continue in the next 3-year package in an attempt to further equalize district harvest and user group size with the statewide averages. For the 2003-05 seasons, with the exception of the Colockum elk, there have been enough animals to expand antlerless opportunity. Deer numbers have been increasing with mild winters and antlerless opportunity for Yakima elk herd has been high, as the herd has been intentionally reduced from 11,000 to 9,500 elk. The Yakima elk herd is now near it’s goal and antlerless harvest is being reduced to stabilize the herd at 9,500. If the anticipated severe winter reduces the deer herd, major adjustments will be made.