The Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife (ODFW) staff are planning to propose changes to the 2022 archery elk seasons to better manage elk populations and hunting pressure in popular units.
Under an initial draft proposal, archery elk hunting would remain a general season hunting opportunity in western Oregon and much of eastern Oregon. However, several northeast Oregon units (see map at end of article) would move from general season hunting to some form of controlled archery hunting to better manage elk populations and more equitably distribute necessary harvest reductions between rifle and archery hunters.
Tags would not be portable to general season hunts, so archery elk hunters would need to choose either Eastern Oregon General, Western Oregon General, or the controlled hunt tag they drew.
More information is available at the Big Game Review page.
Units considered for the change were chosen based on the current elk population as well as the challenges with hunter density and displacement highlighted through our public process in 2020. The primary elk population issue that ODFW staff used in refining the archery hunt proposal revolves around post hunting season bull ratios and the individual unit’s bull ratio management objective. Units where the bull ratio (number of bulls per cows) have not met management objectives for three out of five years need a reduction in bull harvest and are being considered to go to controlled archery hunting with this draft proposal.
“We have tried to craft a solution that addresses the problems we are seeing in some units, while continuing to retain as much general season opportunity as possible,” says Jeremy Thompson, the ODFW district wildlife biologist for the Mid-Columbia who is managing the elk archery review. “We recognize that any change we propose will impact hunters, but we will also be impacting hunters if we do not make a change.
The ultimate goal of this proposal is to be able to make management actions equitable for all users,” he continued. “Currently the controlled rifle season is the one place we have the ability to adjust hunter harvest, and they have taken almost all the tag reductions in the last 25 years.”
Additional units are being considered to change from general archery to some form of controlled archery hunting because although they are currently achieving bull ratio management objectives, they have limited capacity to absorb additional bull harvest. Many of these units have branch bull harvest in the general archery season that is equal to or greater than the harvest in the controlled rifle bull season.
For example, the Starkey unit has not achieved bull management objective in the last five years, 60 percent of the branch bull harvest occurs during the archery season, and tag reductions have only affected the controlled rifle season. If the Starkey Unit alone was moved from general archery hunting to a controlled archery hunt, the Ukiah or other adjacent units would likely see an increase in archery hunters and harvest if they remain a general season.
ODFW is looking for feedback on the draft proposal from hunters before development of a final staff proposal that would go to the Commission. The Commission discussion of archery elk changes is happening at their June 18 meeting to ensure archers can attend the meeting outside of archery season; final 2022 Big Game Regulations will be adopted at the September 2021 Commission meeting.
To comment, please review the proposal and then send an email to odfw.wildlifeinfo@state.or.us no later than April 15. (There will be additional opportunities to comment before and during the June meeting.)
I have archery hunted elk in Oregon for twenty five years, I have taken a few branch bulls but I am not a trophy hunter. I believe any bull elk taken with a bow and arrow is a trophy. I hope that in the new proposed controlled units there will be a spike bull option like the other present controlled units. I hate the idea of not being able to archery hunt every fall because I did not draw a tag. To be honest the units that are proposed as general in Eastern Oregon do not interest me at all. I do not need a branch bull tag every year I would be happy with a spike bull tag and the opportunity to hunt each fall.
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