oregons new eastern oregon unit change for 2026

[Salmonchaser]

This guy out of Pendleton got busted, news article from 2023. $75K in fines (due to number of animals taken), potential felony prosecution, and then for the next three elk seasons (maybe to 2026) had/has to spend time in jail. Unsure how meaningful that last one is, since he presumably also had his hunting license revoked.

Elk season is now jailing season for poacher; New sentencing guidelines elevate some poaching crimes from misdemeanor to felony.

Wonder if he'll ever pay the $75K, or maybe he'll have his wages garnished for a while.

Another online resource shows from 2019 to 2020, a jump in discovered poaching incidents:

Elk 103 to 161

Deer 185 to 220

One problem is at least the units I hunt, it's been a lot of years since I've seen an LEO, whether State Trooper or County Sheriff deputy. That wasn't always the case, when back in late 1990s/early to mid 2000s you'd at least once see a State Trooper driving the USFS roads.

In 1980 there were just under 800 Oregon State Troopers. 2025 there are less than 500. In 1980 there were about 3.2million people in Oregon. 2025 there are about 4.3million.
I just checked. Not counting the Union county Jail there are three deputies and a supervisor on duty. Union county takes in parts or all of Oregons most popular GMU. You ain’t likely to see a trooper or a deputy when out hunting.
One of the line items in the compiled studies that generated the change in mule deer management was a poaching estimate. I’ll confirm next week but the estimate was either equal to vehicle strikes or equal to the legal take of deer. My gut tells me the number I should be remembering is vehicle strikes. In any event it is significant. I’ll find that information.

 

[Blue Steel]

I hunt in what I think are the two most popular elk units and I'm sure you do too (though in recent years the one has overtakn the formerly most popular one for certain tag applications). Unfortunately there's not enough resources to protect the other dwindling resources. I see on the Sheriff's website there's a link for "report wolf depredation", so that's another thing occasionally taking up LEO time.

As for vehicle strikes v poaching, I assume it's a statewide number but in certain places there's hardly any animals to get hit. Like Hwy 82 south of Elgin, what's called "Hamburger Hill" is now mis-named because hardly any deer ever get hit on that stretch. I don't recall the last time I've seen a deer dead or alive in that stretch. Most of them live in Elgin away from predators (and poachers?), but I guess if someone's speeding through town they might hit one.