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The Evergreen State is for hunters

Washington's diverse wildlife offers outdoor challenge

By Al Thomas, Columbian Outdoors Reporter
Published: February 28, 2010, 12:00am
  1. Apply in the spring for a Margaret unit elk tag. The Margaret unit is on the north side of Mount St. Helens. The tag is the most-sought special permit hunt in Washington with about 4,250 applicants for 15 to 20 permits. Here’s why: In 2008, the success rate was 82 percent.
  2. Apply for a Mount Adams elk area tag. This season is late September in the Mount Adams Wilderness. This is a glorious time to be in the high country. In 2008, there were 999 applications for the five tags. A week on Mount Adams at this time of year is worth it, regardless of hunting success.
  3. Whitetail deer hunting in the northeast corner of the state is quite good. Several game management units north of Spokane have success rates approaching 30 percent.
  4. Apply for an Entiat or Swakane mule deer permit. The season is the first three weeks of November. An Entiat deer permit is the most popular in the state, with more than 5,000 applicants annually. While the permits are limited and hard to get (fewer than 1 percent of the applicants are drawn), the success rate in 2008 was 97 percent in Entiat and 82 percent in Swakane.

Washington’s wildlife populations are dwindling incrementally as habitat is turned into subdivisions, strip malls and highways.

But Washington residents still go hunting — a lot. They hunted more than 2.1 million days in 2008, according to the Department of Fish and Wildlife reporting system.

Then again, that number was more than 2.3 million days in 2003.

Washington is not a destination hunting state. Hunting here for anything just isn’t that good. This is the smallest Western state, yet ranks No. 2 in population.

What Washington offers is diversity.

When the sun rises in Washington, it first shines on the wheatfields of the Palouse and forested slopes of Pend Oreille County.

  1. Apply in the spring for a Margaret unit elk tag. The Margaret unit is on the north side of Mount St. Helens. The tag is the most-sought special permit hunt in Washington with about 4,250 applicants for 15 to 20 permits. Here's why: In 2008, the success rate was 82 percent.
  2. Apply for a Mount Adams elk area tag. This season is late September in the Mount Adams Wilderness. This is a glorious time to be in the high country. In 2008, there were 999 applications for the five tags. A week on Mount Adams at this time of year is worth it, regardless of hunting success.
  3. Whitetail deer hunting in the northeast corner of the state is quite good. Several game management units north of Spokane have success rates approaching 30 percent.
  4. Apply for an Entiat or Swakane mule deer permit. The season is the first three weeks of November. An Entiat deer permit is the most popular in the state, with more than 5,000 applicants annually. While the permits are limited and hard to get (fewer than 1 percent of the applicants are drawn), the success rate in 2008 was 97 percent in Entiat and 82 percent in Swakane.

By the time it sets, it has covered the shrub-steppe and rocky scablands of Central Washington, the glaciated peaks of the Cascades Range, the lowland valleys of Western Washington and the shores of the Pacific Ocean.

With that much geographic diversity comes an array of wildlife species. Washington has 12 species of mammals and 11 types of birds that are fair game.

Deer and elk are Nos. 1 and 2 in hunting popularity in Washington.

In 2008, almost 145,000 hunters bagged slightly more than 35,000 deer, while 76,000 hunters killed more than 6,800 elk. Those two species resulted in about 1.2 million hunter days afield.

Surprisingly, the third-most popular species in Washington is forest grouse. State statistics show almost 39,000 grouse hunters and a kill of 101,000 birds, numbers no doubt swelled by deer hunters who will shoot a grouse incidentally.

Duck hunting ranked No. 4 with 21,000 hunters and 410,000 dead ducks, while pheasants were No. 5 at 23,400 hunters and 87,000 birds.

Washington hunters need a hunting license from the state. The licenses are sold at sporting goods stores and other retailers or online from the agency at https://fishhunt.dfw.wa.gov.

A deer or elk license costs $43.20, while a small-game license for birds is $36. Waterfowl hunters need both a $12 state validation and a $15 federal duck stamp.

http://wdfw.wa.gov

http://www.biggamehunt.net/sections/Washington/

<a href="http://wdfw.wa.gov">http://wdfw.wa.gov</a>

<a href="http://www.biggamehunt.net/sections/Washington/">http://www.biggamehunt.net/sections/Washington/</a>

<a href="http://hunting-washington.com">http://hunting-washington.com</a>

http://hunting-washington.com

Deer season for rifle hunters starts the third Saturday in October and ends on different dates in various parts of the state. There also is a very popular and productive four-day late deer hunt in mid-November in most of Western Washington.

Duck hunting starts the same day as deer season and ends in mid-January. Pheasant hunting in Eastern Washington begins the fourth Saturday in October and continues into mid-January.

Regulation pamphlets detailing the specifics on Washington’s hunting seasons are available for download from the Department of Fish and Wildlife at http://wdfw.wa.gov and in print at sporting goods stores.

The local office of the agency is at 2108 Grand Blvd.

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Columbian Outdoors Reporter