Landers: Helicopter survey conflicts with elk hunt in Whitman County

A helicopter big-game survey scheduled for Saturday’s perfect flying conditions in Whitman County was bad timing for at least Levi Dennis.

The hunter from Lamont was out trying to fill his muzzleloader elk tag with four days remaining in the 14-day season.

“In the morning we noticed a white helicopter flying in a strange pattern about a mile or two away,” he said Monday. “About an hour later we received a call from friends who had spotted elk on some other property so we headed over to see if we could put a stalk on them and get a shot.”

Before Dennis and his wife arrived, the elk had been “run off the property” by the helicopter, he said.

But the tracks let onto another farm where he had permission to hunt. Eventually he saw the elk on a ridge about three-quarters of a mile away.

“Before I could get to them I spotted the helicopter again,” he said, noting that it seemed to be following them.

“When we got to the elk we had to wait for them to cross the road again because we didn’t have permission to hunt where they were currently at. The elk were walking single file on a hilltop and were no longer running from the chopper.”

That’s every elk hunter’s dream – having five cows, their calves, a spike and a mature bull walking in his direction. But it didn’t last.

“At this point the chopper stopped following us and began to chase the elk the other direction,” he said. “I told my wife to take pictures so we had proof.”

Dennis said he wrote to Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife Director Jim Unsworth with his concerns. He said the helicopter survey cost him a rare opportunity to get close to elk that are especially difficult to hunt during a primitive weapons season in Palouse farmlands.

Department biologist Michael Atamian said he was in the helicopter working with a similar small window of opportunity to collect the data that helps the state manage big game herds.

“We were trying to complete our Columbia Basin mule deer survey,” he said. “When we’re flying, we take the opportunity to count any ungulate we see. I can understand how it might appear to the hunter that we were chasing the elk away.”

When the surveyors spotted the elk, they followed them for about a minute, Atamian said. After logging details on gender, age and antler sizes, the surveyors circled back to confirm their data with a photograph.

“Then we clicked back into our survey pattern,” he said.

The survey methodology requires the helicopter to fly a back-and-forth grid over randomly preselected square-mile sections.

“We work methodically through a unit before moving to the next one,” he said, noting that survey patterns must be done the same each time to increase data accuracy. “Most of the time we’re not seeing anything. But when we do, we circle back to document.

“We prefer to avoid flying when hunters are in the field, but it’s very difficult to avoid all hunting seasons.”

The best time to survey mule deer is during the rut when bucks are running more closely with does, he said. However, the survey avoids the general modern firearms season to minimize the potential for conflicts when the highest number of hunters is in the field, he added.

Special hunts continue after the general season through the end of the master hunter elk season on Dec. 31. That’s about the same time the influence of the rut quits benefiting the mule deer surveys, Atamian said.

“If we wait until January, the bucks tend to form their own separate groups and the survey is more likely to miss them and skew the data,” he said.

Weather also was a factor for the survey’s conflict with hunters on Saturday, Atamian said.

“Normally we try to avoid weekends, but looking at the forecast, Saturday was the one day we could safely fly. We got seven units done. The weather was going to deteriorate after that. That’s our biggest problem – getting weathered out.”

Meantime, staff time and aircraft charters for other surveys must be scheduled. The region’s moose surveys start in mid-December, he said.

Atamian called Dennis to explain the survey procedure and the scientific methodology that governs the way they fly.

Dennis said he wasn’t completely satisfied that the conflict couldn’t have been reduced.

“I just don’t understand why they would even interfere with a hunting season that’s open to the public in that way,” he said.

Of course, when elk are spooked by one thing or another they could just as easily run into a hunter as away from one. But Dennis is calling foul.

“I feel they had to be aware of the fact that I was there as well, and was possibly pursuing the elk as a hunter, and they should have kept moving on their deer count.”