GMU 266 - Badger, Washington

218 square miles in Douglas County, Washington (WDFW District 7). Bounded by the Columbia River to the south and west; East Wenatchee and Rock Island sit along the southern boundary. Badger Mountain rises to 4,200 feet and provides the unit's dominant topographic feature — a forested mountain rare in Douglas County's otherwise shrubsteppe and agricultural plateau landscape. Steep canyon drainages descend from Badger Mountain to a broad flat bench before dropping sharply to the Columbia River valley floor near 700 feet. Slope analysis shows 80% of the area has a slope equal to or less than 28 degrees. The unit is approximately 220 square miles per GoHunt data (218 mi² per WDFW Table 5b). The Batterman Road Fire of 2021 burned 14,124 acres of the Badger Mountain area, and recovering burn areas provide early successional forage that may be contributing to recent harvest improvements.

Extremely limited public land — approximately 7% of the unit per GoHunt analysis, confirmed as a patchwork of small, spread-out BLM and DNR parcels per WDFW 2025 District 7 report. Personal-use residences, ranchettes, fruit orchards along the Columbia River, and dryland wheat/grain/sugar beet farms on the upper plateau dominate land use. The unit is subdivided into many very small private parcels, making navigation difficult without GPS. East Wenatchee and Rock Island provide the primary road access along the southern boundary via the Columbia River corridor. No named WDFW Wildlife Areas fall within GMU 266 itself (the adjacent Swakane Wildlife Area at 11,020 acres is in GMU 250 to the west/north). More than 80,000 acres countywide are enrolled in WDFW's Hunter Access Program (HAP). Private land permission is strongly recommended and scouting for bachelor herds on private lands before season is advised by WDFW biologists.

The unit transitions from Columbia River riparian edge (cottonwood, willow, fruit orchards) through shrubsteppe (big sagebrush, bitterbrush, rabbitbrush) on the mid-elevation bench, to ponderosa pine and mixed conifer on the forested upper slopes of Badger Mountain. Agricultural land includes irrigated fruit orchards near the Columbia River and dryland wheat, grains, and sugar beets on the plateau. Post-2021 Batterman Road burn areas on Badger Mountain are regenerating with forbs and early successional browse.

Douglas County mule deer are thought to be primarily resident (non-migratory) unlike the highly migratory Chelan County herds. Deer utilize the dry shrubsteppe and agricultural edges, concentrating in areas offering sagebrush cover and adjacent winter wheat or canola fields. Buck escapement is lower in open sagebrush than in the forested Cascades due to reduced cover. The 2024 post-hunt ground survey for the Douglas subherd returned a buck:doe ratio of 21:100 — above the management objective of 15-19:100. Fawn:doe ratio of 43:100 in 2024 represents a declining trend (third consecutive year of decline), attributed to prolonged drought. A few white-tailed deer occur along the Columbia River edge and adjacent agricultural land but are uncommon. Elk are extremely rare in GMU 266 and Douglas County broadly; only 2 elk were harvested across all of Douglas County in 2024 (4 in 2023, 0 in 2022), and GMU 266 shows 0.000 elk harvest per square mile on WDFW density maps.

GMU 266 is called out as a 'bright spot' in the 2025 WDFW District 7 Hunting Prospects report — harvest and hunter success rose considerably over the 2023 and 2024 seasons despite a marked decrease in hunter numbers, suggesting per-hunter opportunity is improving. The 2021 Batterman Road fire (14,124 acres) burned significant Badger Mountain habitat; recovering burn areas likely concentrate and attract deer. The unit is NOT listed among the most productive Douglas County GMUs but outperformed expectations in 2024 modern firearm success (27%, 2nd best in Douglas County by rank sum). The Badger special permit hunt (Hunt 1427) offers 8 antlerless-only tags as a second deer opportunity, drawing ~267 applications in 2024 (~3% draw odds). No elk special permits exist for GMU 266. Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) management rules now apply to deer transport in Washington — check current regulations. No tribal ceded territory restrictions noted for this unit specifically, but hunters should verify current regulations.