ELEPHANT LAKE— A several square-mile block of dense conifer cover near here has been managed for decades for its value to wintering wildlife, particularly white-tailed deer. According to Penny Backman, a DNR wildlife biologist based in Orr, the Elephant Lake deer yard has been managed for winter wildlife habitat at least since the 1960s.

For most of that time, wildlife biologists worked unofficially with forest managers in the area to ensure maintenance of the extensive growth of mostly upland white cedar. Backman said maintenance of the cedar is important both because its dense evergreen canopy offers outstanding winter protection for deer and because the species is now nearly impossible to regenerate once harvested. “I always say that if the deer don’t eat it, the rabbits will eat it, and if the rabbits don’t eat it, the mice will eat it,” said Backman. 

More recently, Camp Five Township, which includes the deer yard, was officially designated as a Management Opportunity Area, or MOA, to be managed as a deer wintering complex. 

The management puts an emphasis on maintaining the cedar, while at the same time allowing some aspen timber harvest along the edges to provide opportunity for deer browse. Ideally, said Backman, those timber harvests are staggered so there is always some young forest, under five years of age, to provide good browse for deer. 

The pressure to harvest timber is intense, however, and Backman, so management isn’t always what wildlife managers might prefer. “We try,” she said, “with varying levels of success.”