Accomplishments for Game Management

Game Management Plan: The greatest overall accomplishment in the past year was the completion of the first Game Management Plan. This Plan, adopted by the Fish and Wildlife Commission in December 2002, lays out the priorities for the next six years for hunted species. The Plan is fairly aggressive in the number and breadth of strategies to be implemented.

The Department is committed to changing the way we work with the public to ensure a better partnership as we begin implementing the Plan. The first step in this new partnership is a public meeting set for August 23rd at Central Washington University in Ellensburg. The main purpose for the meeting is to cooperatively design a process that provides better, more continuous exchange of information and ideas that leads to hunting season changes and implementation of strategies in the Plan. Watch for news releases or additional information on the Departments Web page at www.wa.gov/wdfw.

2003-05 Hunting Season Package: The new Game Management Plan drove the most significant changes to the hunting seasons. The changes resulted in expanded opportunities for senior, youth, and hunters with disabilities along with greater attention to providing balanced deer and elk hunting opportunities across the state for archers, muzzleloaders, and modern firearm hunters.

The modern firearm mule deer season in north-central Washington was extended by five days; the early archery elk season was shifted to mid-September; and several additional areas will be available for the early muzzleloader deer and elk season. In addition, the number of fall turkey permits were significantly increased, the pheasant season was shifted to a later start date, and permits are available that allow hunters to harvest two white-tailed deer, one buck and one antlerless. For more information, hunters should review the 2003 Big Game pamphlet. The 2003 Waterfowl and Upland Bird pamphlet will be available in September.

Elk Management: New studies were initiated to gather better information about the Colockum, Yakima and Blue Mountains elk herds. The Colockum study is looking at body condition of elk that is similar to past studies in western Washington and the Yakima herd. The idea is to find out why productivity is relatively poor in this herd.

With the recent completion of the Yakima elk herd plan, a major study has been initiated between the U.S. Forest Service, the Yakama tribe, and WDFW to ultimately determine whether there is enough habitat to support the number of elk in that herd. The study in the Blue Mountains is in cooperation with the Nez Perce and Umatilla tribes to look at mortality factors. This herd has been significantly below population objective for many years and this mortality study is designed to help determine ways to increase the herd. The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, Eyes in the Woods, Inland Northwest Wildlife Council, and other organizations provided funding and volunteer support for these projects.

Cougar & Black Bear Management: Two biologists were hired to address human/dangerous wildlife interactions and cougar and black bear population management. They are developing long term strategies and responding to incidents in chronic problem areas, developing educational programs, and monitoring the impacts of hunting and removal strategies. Aggressive tactics to address increasing cougar populations appear to be working with recent evidence of population declines and reduced complaint levels. See the cougar article in this publication for more information.

Pheasant Workshop: A group of mid-west pheasant experts were asked to share ideas with Washington regarding how to address our problems. The Department organized a public forum where hunters, the organization Pheasants Forever, landowners, biologists, and participants ultimately developed a set of recommendations for what can be done in the future.

The main points of the recommendations are: to work very closely with Federal farm programs to fund activities that are beneficial to pheasants; to focus attention and funding in key geographic areas where success can be realized; to identify the limiting factors or bottlenecks in these areas that are keeping the pheasant population from growing; to develop partnerships with farmers and other conservation groups to find mutually beneficial techniques of providing pheasant habitat; and that production habitat (nesting and brood rearing) has been identified as most limiting through pheasant range.

Private Lands Review: Hunters have identified access and wildlife habitat enhancement on private lands as a significant issue. A stakeholders group has been formed to provide recommendations to the Department on improving existing programs and/or developing new ones. Members include farmers, farming organizations, timberland owners, hunting and conservation organizations, current participants in Department programs, and the Northwest Indian Fish Commission. The group has been focusing on review of the state’s Private Lands Wildlife Management Areas as a first step. They are scheduled to provide recommendations on this part of the Department’s private lands program later this summer. Watch for additional information from the Department in September.

Bighorn Sheep Augmentation: Forty bighorn sheep captured in Oregon and Nevada were relocated to central and eastern Washington to boost low-population herds. This is an effort to bolster population growth and enhance genetic variability in some of our herds that are below management objectives. Funding was provided by the Foundation for North American Wild Sheep and through Washington’s auction and raffle of sheep tags.
Ten bighorns were released in the Sinlahekin area of Okanogan County, five were released in the Mount Hull area of Okanogan County, five were released in the Tieton River area of Yakima County, eight bighorns were released in the Whitestone area, seven in the Lincoln Cliffs area along Lake Roosevelt in northern Lincoln County, and five were released in the Vulcan Mountain area of Ferry County.