OVER THE COUNTER
Washington State’s Black Bears
Plentiful OTC tags create excellent opportunity for hunters.
W
ashington is not the first
place one thinks of when it
comes to trophy big game.
This is due to many factors in-
cluding short deer and elk seasons and a large
metropolitan area along the shores of Puget
Sound. But hunters might be a bit surprised
to learn that Washington boasts the largest
black bear population in the lower 48 states
where between 25,000 and 30,000 bruins roam
the hills, coastlines and mountains of the Ev-
ergreen State.
Western Washington has the highest con-
centration of bears, especially the Olympic
Peninsula. But the foothills and suburbs sur-
rounding the greater Seattle area are riddled
with bear conflicts and it is common to hear
of younger boars being kicked from their
mothers and winding up in neighborhoods.
The use of hounds and bait was outlawed by
a referendum vote backed by non-hunting
citizens in 1996 and since then bear numbers
have steadily increased. Case in point. Hunt-
ers can harvest two bears each year, one of
which must come from the eastern half of the
state.
Black bears are managed by regions known
as Black Bear Management Units, or BBMU’s
with sub-sets designated by the general Game
Management Units, or GMU’s that most hunt-
ers use to find regions and season. There are
nine BBMU’s in Washington with one region
28
WESTERN HUNTING JOURNAL
Andy Byrd with a Washington
black bear taken in a
huckleberry patch along
the Cascade Crest in early
September.
BBMU 9-Columbia Basin being comprised of
the wheat fields of the Palouse and virtually
no bears (only 11 were harvest in 2016 in all of
BBMU 9 which consist of 18 GMU’s, and those
11 were harvested in just two GMU’s).
Most bears are taken by deer and elk
hunters that have a bear tag; the season runs
through the deer and elk season and Wash-
ington offers a combination license package
that includes a bear tag with deer and elk
tags. This leads to a misleading low success
rate as it counts hunters that are targeting
other quarry when they harvest a bear. Hunt-
ers who specifically target bears do very well,
especially in the alpine berry fields in late
summer.
Most hunters who target Washington’s
bears head for the remote backcountry in late
August and early September in some close
proximity to the state’s five volcanoes. Wash-
ington’s mild climate and rich volcanic ash soil
produces the perfect growing conditions for a
multitude of berries including huckleberries,
blueberries, black berries, thimble berries and
mountain ash. Virtually all of the backcountry
hunts take place on public ground in the four
major mountainous regions: Olympics, Cas-
cades, Blues and Selkirk mountains. Season’s
start as early as the beginning of August and
go until November.
All fall bear hunting in Washington is
done with an “over the counter” tag for both
residents and non-residents. There is a spring
bear season by permit only. You can harvest
two bears in Western Washington or one
on each side of the Cascade Mountains that
divide the wet western portion of the state
from the arid regions in eastern Washington.
For color phased bears it is best to target the
eastern side of the state where you will find
a multitude of bears with blonde, cinnamon,
chocolate or a combination of any of the color
spectrum black bears are known to have. Most
bears in western Washington are black phase
with a few cinnamon bears. Blonde bears are
very rare on the west side of the state, espe-
cially in the Olympic Mountains where most
bears are all black, including their muzzles,
much like the bears of Vancouver Island
which can be seen from the northern end of
the Olympic Peninsula. Here are five units in
Washington to target black bears. What fol-
lows is a brief synopsis of the most popular
bear hunts.
JASON BROOKS
Unit 204 Okanogan East
This hunt is managed under BMU 7, locat-
ed in Washington’s largest county, Okano-
gan, which is comprised of rolling hills and
mountains. Portions of this unit are private
lands but there is abundant national forest
and state land as well. This unit is in North
Central Washington and the northern bor-
der is Canada. There are ample huckleber-
ries in this unit at mid-elevations that pro-
vide food for black bears as well as places to
concentrate on for the hunter.
Hunter success rate might seem relative-
ly low but most hunters are deer hunters
who happen to also have a bear tag. This
unit is a consistent producer for hunters
who take the time to learn where bears are.
Since a lot of the area is rolling cattle coun-
try the bears tend to be concentrated on
smaller parcels of land. If you put in your
time you will find black bears in the Okan-
ogan East.
Okanogan East Unit Harvest Stats
TOTAL BEARS KILLED 69
NUMBER OF HUNTERS 689
SUCCESS RATE 10%
SEASON Aug. 15 - Nov. 15
Unit 121 Huckleberry
Also managed under BMU 7, this is a unit