Tired of predators hurting deer/elk populations in Oregon? Let me kill them for you! (NW Spring Bear advice)

[jfandel3]

I live in West Portland and was able to get a NW Oregon Spring Bear tag. Was thinking I could drive West for an hour or so and hike around to scout some glassing spots, maybe find some sheds, but don't want to waste my time if that's a non-starter. Is that Coast Range area in the Scappoose/Wilson/Trask units known to have some bears?

 

[WoodlandCritter]

Try calling your state biologist. Great place to start for info.

 

[jfandel3]

Try calling your state biologist. Great place to start for info.

Thank you. I certainly will do that. Going to get my boots on the ground for a couple days first and then will look them up.

 

[hibernation]

Big game hunting harvest statistics | Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife

See the latest and historic data about big game hunting statistics for different hunts.

myodfw.com

Start here and look at some of the harvest stats. The NW tag is always easy to draw, partly because success rates are relatively low. There's a fair number of bears in the NW coast range, but not near as many as SW or NE Oregon. And they can be hard to hunt because of the terrain, it's just so thick and bears are often down low in the drainages. You could be 25 yards away and still not able to see it for a clear shot.

Time in the field will be your main factor. Hike spur roads and closed/decommed roads if possible, finger ridges, river bottoms, and look for bear sign. Even if it's from last fall. See if you can look up more specifics on their diet, but in general, springtime they're looking for greenup. Grasses in clearcuts and along exposed road edges. Skunk cabbage. Things like that.

Even if you're focused on glassing open areas, I would really suggest scouting hard to find areas that actually have some bears using them. Bears leave a lot of sign behind, it's usually not too difficult to tell if they're in the general area or not.

Be advised that a lot of bears get culled on tree farms too.