A nugget in WDFW's weekly wildlife report contains potentially troubling news about future access to timberlands in Washington's southwestern corner which local deer and elk hunters will want to track.
With 82,000 acres of the western Willapa Hills and North River areas changing hands last year, a pile of gates are going up and now a far-off corporate office is mulling charging sportsmen entry fees to lands they were allowed onto for free in past seasons.
It also follows Rayonier's continued leasing out of chunks of its ground in coastal counties. Last fall, the timber giant's move to dole out only a few access permits to the Salmon and Fossil Creek areas in the Williams Creek and Willapa Hills GMUs, two of the Westside's best elk hunts, was not popular with local sportsmen.
According to one source at WDFW I spoke to about the issue, the continuing and growing loss of hunting access through gating, permitting and leasing has the attention of honchos all the way into Olympia.
On a related note, the same corporation has blocked tsunami evacuation routes along Willapa BAy with gates, though they have since been unlocked, thanks to KOMO Problem Solvers.
Here's what the weekly report states:
Private Timberland Access: Bio Harris, RPM Cope, and R5 Private Lands Bio Stephens met with Hancock Forest Management (HFM) Operations Forester for lands in GMU’s 506, 658, 673, & 684 about hunting access. HFM purchased most of WEYCO lands in these GMU’s in 2011. Currently all lands are open to non-motorized access. During MF deer and elk season motorized access was allowed in 2011. HFM has now installed gates around the perimeters of these lands. They are now in the process of installing interior gates. The intention of the meeting was to discuss the placement of these gates and how they could be used to distribute hunters during the hunting seasons. We were also going to discuss how WDFW provided gates could aid in this process. However, at the meeting we were informed that HFM corporate management has indicated that they may want to implement some form of a permit access program to these lands. At this time it is unknown what type of program they are considering. WDFW staff plan to continue to work with HFM on this emerging issue.
- THE GAME UNITS THAT MAY BE AFFECTED BY THE OWNERSHIP CHANGE ARE LARGELY IN PACIFIC COUNTY. (WDFW)
