Think back to last winter, when January was one of the mildest on record and the woods were snow-free much of the time. All that balmy weather last winter should be good news for hunters during the Western Washington general modern rifle elk season, which opens Sunday.
“It was a really mild winter,” said Pat Miller, regional wildlife biologist for the Department of Fish and Wildlife in Longview. “I think the elk herd is doing well,” he said.
One gauge of the elk herd’s condition is the annual mortality survey on the WDFW’s Mount St. Helens Wildlife Area in the Toutle River Valley. In previous years, as many as 150 elk carcasses have been counted there in spring. Last spring, however, a grand total of one dead elk was found on the wildlife land.
Miller said calf survival was good last winter, which translate into “a reasonable number of spike bulls” this season. A year from now, those animals will have three points. Most game units in Southwest Washington have a three-point minimum during the general season.
There are certainly some big bulls out there for hunters this year.
Though the permit-only Margaret and Toutle game units north and west of Mount St. Helens are renowned for big bulls, elk population surveys have shown that such animals are distributed through other game units, Miller said. “We don’t always see the biggest bulls in Margaret or Toutle,” he said.
In 2007, WDFW decided to reduce the size of the St. Helens herd, which extends from Highway 12 to the Columbia River and from I-5 east to the Cascades crest, by 25 percent. That’s being accomplished mostly by increasing antlerless permits.
“It will take at least five years to get there,” Miller said.
Last year, WDFW switched to a different method of calculating the elk herd size. Miller said another year of data is needed before a reliable herd size estimate is generated.
Biologists used to be able to provide a rough estimate of elk herd compositions for hunters based on fall surveys.
But last year, WDFW switched to a new counting method that biologists say is more accurate. They now count herds from helicopters in spring, when there’s less cover and animals are easier to spot. Also, archery seasons sometimes disrupted the fall elk surveys.
Hunters may still encounter elk with hoof rot, a condition that causes misshapen hooves and legs. Because it’s painful for afflicted elk to walk, they have trouble foraging and may be emaciated.
In 2009, WDFW veterinarians examined elk with hoof rot in the Vader area and found they had copper and selenium deficiency.
“We know it’s still quite prevalent in the lowlands,” Miller said. The condition has mostly been reported along the I-5 corridor.
Eric Holman, a WDFW biologist who focuses on Clark County and the Columbia River Gorge, said he doesn’t get many reports of hoof rot from those areas.
Hunters who do shoot an elk with hoof rot should use their common sense about what’s safe to consume. “If part of the leg doesn’t smell good, cut it away and eat the rest,” Miller suggested.
