GMU 262 - Withrow, Washington

The Withrow unit occupies the Waterville Plateau section of the Columbia Plateau, centered on the unincorporated community of Withrow at approximately 2,526 ft (770 m) elevation. The plateau is defined to the north by the Withrow Moraine — the Ice Age terminal moraine of the Okanogan lobe, a National Natural Landmark — which gives the landscape its characteristic rolling till topography. South and west the plateau breaks into deep basalt coulee systems including Moses Coulee, exposing Roza and Frenchmen Springs Member basalt flows. Elevations across the unit range from roughly 800–2,700 ft as terrain drops toward the Columbia River corridor. The Waterville Plateau proper averages 2,600–2,700 ft and is flat to gently rolling, while coulee floors drop sharply 500–1,000 ft below the plateau rim.

GMU 262 is approximately 94% private land with only 6% public (approximately 2% BLM, 3% DNR State). The dominant private ownership consists of large dryland wheat farming operations and cattle ranches. There is no WDFW State Wildlife Area within GMU 262 itself; the nearest SWA access is in adjacent units. The Big Bend Unit (GMU 248) to the south has a remote state wildlife area accessible by Columbia River. Public access within 262 is extremely limited — hunters must secure landowner permission, which is available in some cases given the agricultural community's historical tolerance for hunting. An established road network (county roads and farm access roads) makes the unit conveniently navigable once access is granted. No green dot road management system applies in this unit.

Dominant cover is dryland wheat and fallow agriculture interspersed with big sagebrush, rabbitbrush, bitterbrush, bunchgrass, and buckwheat in uncultivated areas — classic Columbia Basin shrub-steppe. Coulee walls and floors retain the most intact native vegetation including scattered ponderosa pine on north-facing aspects. Riparian corridors along coulee drainages provide denser cover with willow and cottonwood. The mix of harvested grain fields and sagebrush draws creates reliable mule deer habitat, with deer using coulees and draws for security cover and moving onto agricultural fields at dusk and dawn.

Mule deer on the Waterville Plateau are relatively non-migratory given the mild plateau winters compared to higher-elevation Cascade units. Deer concentrate in coulee systems and along field edges, moving between sagebrush cover and grain stubble. The Douglas herd buck-to-doe ratio has been documented at 26:100 with fawn:doe at 76:100, both exceeding WDFW management goals of 15–19 bucks per 100 does for open-country herds, indicating a healthy and relatively lightly harvested population. Elk occurrence is uncommon and sporadic — representing northern stray animals from the Colockum herd centered in Kittitas County. WDFW intentionally keeps Douglas County elk seasons liberal to suppress any herd establishment.

GMU 262 boundaries begin at Cold Springs Rd (Rd 25 NW) and Old Dyer Rd at the town of Dyer, extending through a network of county roads to the Columbia River (Chelan-Douglas and Okanogan-Douglas county lines) before returning to the starting point. Adjacent units are GMU 260 (Foster Creek) to the south, GMU 266 (Badger) to the east, and GMU 269 (Moses Coulee) to the southwest. The 2021 HuntScore dataset recorded 388 total hunters, 117 animals harvested, and a 30.2% overall success rate (84 harvest from 284 general firearms hunters for males). The 2015 general firearm mule deer success rate was reported at 36.5%. Washington runs a pure random draw with no preference point system for special permits. No dedicated special hunt permit area has been identified within GMU 262 in available WDFW data — deer seasons appear to operate under general statewide season structures. Black bear and mountain lion are also legal species in the unit.