GMU 522 Loo-wit

GMU 522 is permit-only for both cow and bull elk — there is no general season. It sits inside the Mount St. Helens elk herd, which WDFW surveys put at roughly 1,250 adult females as of spring 2024, still below management objectives and well below the mid-2000s highs. Late-winter storms and treponeme-associated hoof disease (TAHD) have held the herd down, so even permit hunters should expect a challenging hunt. The Mudflow and Hoffstadt wildlife-area units are heavily managed for elk and concentrate animals.

• →Apply for the permit hunts — you cannot hunt elk here on a general tag.
• →Focus on the WDFW Mudflow and Hoffstadt units, which are managed for elk and hold the densest concentrations.
• →Glass the open blast-zone and pumice-plain edges and recovering drainages at dawn and dusk when elk move to feed.
• →Expect elk in cooler, wetter, shaded pockets during warm weather; hunt the timber-meadow edges hard early and late.
• →Report and avoid taking obviously hoof-diseased animals per WDFW guidance, and clean mud from boots/tires to limit TAHD spread.

The Mount St. Helens goat population has grown steadily since re-colonizing the cone after the 1980 eruption and is now estimated at about 335 animals. WDFW splits the area into two hunt areas with a very small number of once-in-a-lifetime permits (two tags per hunt area since 2023). Draw odds are long, but a drawn tag on the recovering volcano is a genuine trophy hunt.

• →This is a once-in-a-lifetime permit hunt — build points and apply; there is no other way to hunt goats here.
• →If drawn, complete the mandatory check-in and goat-identification training and study your assigned hunt-area boundaries.
• →Scout the cone, alpine ridges, and rugged subalpine benches where goats hold; glass steep escape terrain at first light.
• →Plan for physically demanding alpine terrain and volatile mountain weather; collect required biological samples.

Black bears inhabit the recovering forests and berry fields of the unit and fall within the Mount St. Helens Black Bear Management Unit, but GMU 522 itself is closed to bear hunting — hunting is prohibited here except permit-only elk and goat. Bears are present for viewing and incidental to the permit hunts, not a huntable resource in this GMU.

• →Do not plan a bear hunt in 522 — it is closed to bear hunting; hunt adjacent open GMUs (524, 556, 550) instead.
• →Be bear-aware while on permit elk or goat hunts, especially around ripe huckleberry and cascara.
• →Store food and secure camps; the recovering landscape concentrates bears on seasonal berry crops.