During 2004, the Dayton Unit, which put out 35 elk during the general season, was the second-best showing in the region. The Tucannon Unit gave up 20 bulls, and another 26 were killed in the Lick Creek Unit.

Those numbers compare favorably, or even surpass, the harvest in the border units. However, two or three times as many hunters pursue elk in these units as in the southern ones; and during 2004, none of them posted success rates higher than 5 percent.

If you're from out of town and plan to hunt the foothills, you should pay very close attention to maps. The mixture of land ownership in these units is complex. Much of it is privately owned, and you aren't likely to receive permission to hunt.

The Dayton Unit contains the upper forks of the Touchet River and portions of the western edge of the Umatilla National Forest. Most of the Lick Creek GMU, which drains the northeast corner of the Blue Mountains, lies within the eastern portion of the national forest. It is honeycombed with logging and fire roads.

The Tucannon Unit encompasses extensive areas of public land, including national forest land and the W.T. Wooten Wildlife Area. However, last year's School Fire destroyed approximately half of the unit's elk and considerable elk habitat. You may want to avoid it this year.

"The Tucannon will be interesting this year," the WDFW's Fowler said.

He pointed out that burned in the fire was a large section of the elk fence, originally built to keep elk from moving north into agricultural land. If the fencing isn't replaced, elk will damage crops and farm fences, and "we will be forced to reduce the herd," he added.