Island Center Forest will close beginning Saturday for a 20-day deer hunt.

While hunting will be allowed through Oct. 31 on the 200 acres of former state lands that make up Island Center Forest, the 40-acre Gateway and 81-acre Natural Area properties will be closed to hunting and remain open for other uses.

This is the fourth year that King County has closed the popular, publicly owned forest, where hunting has historically been allowed, to everyone but hunters as pilot program. While some islanders have said the dense forest actually isn’t good for hunting, and last year only two deer were reportedly taken there, one county official says he thinks hunters’ odds will be greater there this year because of the recent forest thinning.

Over the summer, King County thinned nearly 60 acres of Douglas fir and red alder at Island Center Forest. The thinning was meant to improve the health of the forest, but also opened up some of the tightly packed woods. Almost immediately, county workers noticed more deer and deer droppings there, either because deer prefer more open forest or because they could be seen more easily, according to Dave Kimmett, a natural lands manager for the county Department of Natural Resources and Parks (DNRP). Either way, Kimmett said, he expects the situation will make for better hunting.

“We expect there will be more deer taken at Island Center Forest this year,” he said. “The opportunities are much greater out there.

The county began a limited hunt at Island Center Forest in 2011, when more than 60 hunters registered and eight deer were harvested. In 2012, when the county established a five-year pilot project for hunting, 38 hunters registered at the trailheads and four deer were harvested.

During the first couple years of hunting at Island Center Forest, just a small fraction of the hunters who registered were from Vashon, according to Kimmett. However, last year, more than half the 58 hunters who registered were from the island. Other hunters came from King, Pierce and Kitsap counties.

Last week Kimmett said he was preparing to speak to local hunters at the Vashon Sportsmen’s Club, reminding them that Island Center Forest will once again be open for hunting, asking them to register if they hunt there and explaining why he thinks hunting will be better there this year. The county will again put up signs warning other users to stay clear of the forest until Oct. 31.

The hunting season coincides with the state Department of Fish and Wildlife’s designated hunting season in which all firearms can be used, except rifles. The action reduces the state’s established four-month hunting season to a 20-day season in Island Center Forest, which is popular for hiking, walking and other recreational uses.

The deer hunt was initially controversial, garnering complaints from some who live in nearby homes as well as some who regularly use the forest. DNRP staff, however, have noted that the most common complaint since then has been the presence of remains from harvested deer along Island Center Forest trails.

Last year the county tried to emphasize the rule that hunters remove deer remains and put out garbage bags for them to use, and Kimmett said there were no incidents or complaints.