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Units / Oregon / Unit DESOLATION

Unit research · Oregon Unit DESOLATION

Unit DESOLATION — Oregon

87% public across 429,776 ac. Road access is easy — only 13% of the public land is more than a mile from a road. Almost none of the public land is landlocked.

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Black bear draw odds (1)Elk draw odds (3)Odds and pins: free, no account
Unit DESOLATIONFull map — ownership, roads, wind →
2,830–8,470 ft

elevation range

87%

public land

13%

of public >1 mi from a road

2 ac

landlocked public

2.43

road miles per mi²

942 mi

maintained trails

Computed from primary government data by the open pipeline. See the code →

Tags & season

Draw hunts on this ground.

4 limited-entry black bear and elk hunts are drawn on Unit DESOLATION: apply in the Oregon draw, by the agency's deadline below.

Black bear tag · 1 draw hunt (2026)$26.50 resident · $26.50 nonresident
Elk tag · 3 draw hunts (2026)$66.00 resident · $670.00 nonresident
Plus: Oregon annual hunting licence$39.00 resident · $193.00 nonresident

Season dates: see Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife's regulations

ODFW — Licence, tag and permit fees (2026)

Oregon black bear and elk draw calendar

  • May 15, 2027application deadline

Fees and draw dates from Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, 2026, verified 2026-08-15. Tag type from the agency's published draw statistics: a unit that appears in none of them has no limited-entry hunt we know of. Source: ODFW — Licence, tag and permit fees (2026) · ODFW — Controlled hunt applications and tags · ODFW — How to navigate the controlled hunt process (standing May 15 deadline).

Land & access

USFS 86%NGO 0%BLM 0%□ Private 13%
Unit area429,776 ac
Public land371,846 ac (87%)
Landlocked public2 ac (0.0%)
Motorized routes (MVUM + roads)1,631 mi
Maintained trails942 mi

Backcountry

Public land >1 mi from a road48,116 ac (13% of public)
Road density2.43 mi/mi²
Managed byUSFS 371k ac · NGO 1k ac · BLM 0k ac
Elevation2,830–8,470 ft
Median elevation5,230 ft
Median slope12°

Where the ground sits

2,830 ft8,470 ft

Tap or hover the bars for each elevation band

Slope mix

Which way the slopes face

N 25%
E 21%
S 25%
W 30%

Share of ground steeper than 5° — flat ground has no facing

North slopes hold shade, cover and snow; south slopes open first.

USGS 3DEP 1 arc-second (30 m), slope at native resolution in a local metric projection, sampled on a 200 m grid. See the code →

Unit intelligence report

38,674 ac of this unit has burned — 9% of the unit. USGS migration corridors cover 56%. The full report assembles it into one printable document and keeps it current as the facts change.

Open the report →

Season conditions — measured, not vibes

Historical temperatures · 2000–2025

Monthly normal highs and lows, °F35° high20° lowJFMAMJJASOND

Normals for 2000–2025 — tap or hover for a month

Measured at BAKER CITY MUNICIPAL ARPT, 65 km from the unit’s center and ~1,900 ft below its median elevation — expect the unit to run colder. NOAA ISD-Lite hourly observations.

Harvest — agency survey estimates

Deer · 2024 · controlled hunts

22.9% success

200 taken by 875 hunters

Deer hunter success · 2015–2024 · 33% → 23%

Season breakdown · 2024
SeasonSuccessHarvestHunters
Archery16%45287
Antlerless83%1012

Which season is the value play here — same ground, different odds.

Estimated harvest from ODFW's MANDATORY HARVEST SURVEY — every tag holder is required to report, and the department extrapolates from the returns. These are estimates by construction and ODFW labels them so; the success rates are the department's own and are carried verbatim. Weapon is the VARIANT, because in Oregon a rifle, archery and muzzleloader hunt are separate controlled hunts with separate tags rather than methods within one season. A hunter appears in exactly one. These summaries are also the only published link from an Oregon hunt to its unit. ODFW names its controlled hunts in prose — "Alsea - Stott Mtn", "Aldrich 01 Bow" — and publishes no hunt-to-unit table anywhere; the Unit Name column here is the crosswalk, and without it the draw statistics could not reach a unit page at all. ⚠️ ODFW SPELLS ITS OWN UNITS TWO WAYS. The harvest summaries say "Alsea", "Lookout Mountain", "Murderer's Creek"; the boundary service says "ALSEA", "LOOKOUT MTN", "MURDERERS CREEK". Every harvest row is mapped through the LAYER's ids so a unit named here always exists on the map. Seasons are uneven: the current summaries carry one year each and the dated archive reaches back to 2014, but several of those older files use a layout this reader does not handle and are omitted whole rather than in part. Source: ODFW Big Game Hunting Harvest Statistics (estimated harvest by unit and hunt).

How these numbers are made

public_land_pct = public_area / unit_area
landlocked = public ∖ reachable(roads, corners)
remote = public ∖ buffer(roads, 1 mi)

Computed, not curated: no paid research team, no opinions dressed as data. If a number looks wrong, file an issue — the fix ships for everyone.

Nearby units

Unit STARKEY65% public · 1% remoteUnit NORTHSIDE41% public · 8% remoteUnit UKIAH35% public · 3% remoteUnit HEPPNER34% public · 2% remoteUnit SUMPTER45% public · 4% remoteUnit BEULAH57% public · 12% remote

Ready to scout it?

Everything on this page, live on the map — ownership, boundaries, roads, and your own waypoints.

Take Unit DESOLATION into the field

Download Oregon’s pack and this unit works with no signal — boundaries, ownership, roads, elevation. Record your hunt with the screen off. Check what’s visible from any ridge.

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What happens nextMay 15Elk application deadline · details →
Watch this unit — freeReturned and leftover tags, new legal closures, fire near the unit, weather warnings — by email. One unit free, no card.