Hunt Area NE-06 Northeast (NE-06)

District mule deer remain below management objective, but ODFW's latest forecast notes East Mt. Emily buck ratios holding stable above objective after decent winter survival — better than much of eastern Oregon. Expect scattered, canyon-oriented deer and a genuine chance at a mature buck for hunters willing to work the breaks.

• →Glass the big south-facing bunchgrass faces of Meacham Creek and the Umatilla forks at first light, then plan a stalk as bucks bed at the timber edge.
• →Hunt high early — plateau edges and spring basins above 4,500 feet hold bucks until snow — then follow the migration down the canyon systems as storms stack up.
• →Use the North Fork Umatilla Wilderness for pressure relief: it's the unit's only true roadless block, and a two-mile walk beats most of the competition.
• →Work the Meacham TMA's closed-road country on foot — gated roads make quiet, glassable travel routes deer haven't abandoned.
• →Midday, still-hunt north-slope stringers and old burn edges where deer shade up in warm October weather.

Whitetails are stable with high buck ratios in this district (a hemorrhagic-disease event is now several years past), and Mt. Emily country carries some of eastern Oregon's better whitetail habitat — canyon mouths, brushy creek bottoms, and the ag fringe along Hwy 11 and the Grande Ronde Valley edge. Much of it is private, and the 2026 structure includes whitetail-focused opportunity in the lower country.

• →Focus on the private/public seams where brushy canyon bottoms meet wheat and pasture along the Hwy 11 side — permission on one good creek bottom is worth more than a week of public plateau.
• →Lower Meacham Creek and the river corridors hold public-ground whitetails — still-hunt the riparian brush slowly, especially midday.
• →The late-October to November rut is prime: rattle and grunt in the bottoms, and watch field edges at last light for cruising bucks.
• →Don't hunt whitetails like mule deer — they're tucked in the thickest low cover, not the open breaks.

Mt. Emily is one of Oregon's best-known elk names — a tightly limited controlled draw famous for heavy, old bulls, with some of the state's best elk hunting in the steep mountain country of this unit. Deer hunters share the mountain with a robust herd; drawing the flagship bull tags takes many years of points.

• →Elk security cover here is the steep canyon timber of the Umatilla forks and the wilderness — hunt benches a third of the way down, not the roaded top.
• →In September, bulls are vocal in the high basins off FR 31; call setups on the plateau/canyon edge are the classic play.
• →If you're on a deer tag, use fresh elk activity as a signpost for undisturbed pockets — both species retreat from the same road pressure.
• →Rifle-season elk shift hard to the reservation boundary and private canyons when pressure spikes — set up on legal ground along those travel routes early in the morning.

Bear and cougar numbers are strong in all units of this district, and the berry-rich plateau understory and canyon fruit make Mt. Emily reliable bear country with both spring and fall opportunity.

• →Early fall, glass huckleberry fields on the plateau edges off FR 31 and Hwy 204 at dawn and dusk.
• →October bears work hawthorn and chokecherry thickets in Meacham Creek and the river bottoms — pair a bear tag with your deer hunt.
• →In spring, glass green-up on the low south-facing canyon slopes above the Umatilla River road.
• →Sit promising sign rather than covering miles — visibility windows in this cover are short.