E-Scouting Clear Cuts

[IAhawks84]

Hey everyone,
Hope everyone's summer is going well. Hunting season is right around the corner and we've got a Idaho hunt planned. I suppose the main target is elk, but we've also got bear and mountain lion tags as well. Me personally, I'd be thrilled to get a bear as I've been trying for a while now.
I'm from Iowa and this E scouting is kind of new. I personally use basemap which is pretty similar to OnX. I'm looking at clear cuts on the maps and see some of these cuts that were done 15-20 years ago. I am looking in the panhandle area and my question is how overgrown are these places actually? From the looks of things and talking with folks, the panhandle is pretty thick and steep. I saw the clearings and thought that'd be a great opportunity to potentially fill my bear tag, or even find some elk grazing outside of the forest. Are these areas pretty overgrown generally? I'd think so, but this map is showing it and it doesn't look too bad.
Just curious if someone has experience with this and if I'd be wasting my time on some older clear cuts. Thanks!

 

[Sask hunter]

Around here cuts grow in fast. Usually after a few years you can’t see much anymore cause trees are too tall

 

[kwyeewyk]

Hard to say for sure but my experience in northeast Washington is 15-20 year cuts have a lot of young trees that are tall and thick enough that you can't really see through them very far if you're in them, could probably glass into them on slopes.

 

[TheTone]

It can vary widely based on age and ownership. Lots of cuts used to be burned shortly after harvest, that seems to have largely went away and has been replaced by spraying them, so now instead of new vegetation growth you get a huge dead spot full of slash. Restocking rates are often heavier than precut so after a decade or so many are a complete jungle. To me the biggest factor is road access to the cut, if you can get to it with an atv expect competition and disturbance which keeps animals from much daytime use and closer to the edges

 

[Little Big Man MT Chris]

I live in Oregon I hunt clearcuts all the time here for deer and elk , there are clear cuts that were done two years ago that aren’t even updated to my onX satellite map . in our area unless you live there and can be out there all the time to see how the clear cuts are changing you can use satellite imagery as basics for areas of interest, Know that satellite pictures probably close to two years old or older. That’s why one of the reasons we scout as much as we do because they’re constantly Logging the land and satellite images are always behind

 

[IAhawks84]

Thanks for all of the input everyone! I'm trying to come up with a tentative plan, but that usually goes out the window in the first 24-48 hours of the hunt haha! Going to be fun regardless. I guess I didn't mention we're going in September to archery hunt the rut. We'll see what happens!

 

[westbranch]

Most cuts 10+ yrs old are going to be hard to glass. And if its corporate timberland it will likely look a lot different in person vs. satellite imagery as they are constantly cutting. And all of that corporate timberland is now closed due to fire danger and might not be open by Sept archery season... So need to watch those announcements.

And I wouldn't spend much time glassing during the rut in Sept, maybe I should. But I usually find elk in the timber/brush and they are not spending much time in open areas during daylight hours.

Bear will be eating huckleberries, mountain ash, elderberries, etc. I haven't seen any bears in Sept, but also haven't spent much time looking for them. I do see a lot of sign, mainly crap full of berries. There are a ton of berries on brushy tree covered slopes where it will be tough to see the bears.

 

[ky4998]

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