REGIONAL— While winter finally appears to be in retreat across the North Country, the impact of the deep and dense snowpack that’s been in place throughout the region for the past several months is likely to be felt for some time within the area’s whitetail deer population.
“It’s been a tough winter, I would say we’re at severe,” said Jessica Holmes, DNR Tower area wildlife manager. “It was a milder season for temperatures, but our snow depths are exceptional, anywhere from 26 inches minimum to over 30 inches in many places,” said Holmes last week. That was before this week’s remarkably warm temperatures, which spurred a rapid snow melt.
Even so, winter severity index readings were already running at or above the severe level in most parts of St. Louis and Lake counties. Yet Holmes said the index, which adds a point for each day with at least 15 inches of snow on the ground and another for each day with a below zero temperature reading, can only tell part of the story. “A fifteen-inch snow depth is a lot different than 30 inches as far as deer are concerned,” she said. The higher density of the snowpack, the result of more mixed precipitation this winter than in the past, has also made moving through the snow more challenging for deer than with a lighter, fluffier snowpack.
That only got more difficult for deer as of mid-March, when the late-winter crust began forming. “We’ve had a situation where the wolves were running on top and the deer were busting through,” she said.
Other indicators confirm the tough conditions. “We’ve been pretty heavy on deer depredation calls,” said Holmes, who noted that deer are beginning to feed on hay bales in farmers’ fields in the Cook area and points south. “You know it’s a tough winter when they go after the hay bales.” In addition, Holmes said recently retired wildlife manager Tom Rusch had reported seeing evidence of deer eating spruce and balsam fir, which Holmes described as “a last resort behavior” for deer in the area.
While this week’s sudden warm-up has dropped snow levels considerably and opened up more exposed ground on south-facing slopes, the impact to the deer population is probably already baked into the cake and is likely to affect the number of fawns born this spring. It’s the second moderate-to-severe winter in a row for area whitetails, which is unlikely to help the area’s already diminished deer population recover.
And you can bet the impact will be felt when DNR wildlife managers determine antlerless permit numbers for next fall’s hunt. “One hundred percent it will factor into the fall hunting season,” said Holmes. “I’m going conservative across the board.” That means most permit areas in the Arrowhead will likely once again be limited to bucks only, and antlerless permit numbers for permit areas 177, 178, and 176 could well see reductions over this past year’s already reduced figures. “That’s my most productive ground,” said Holmes, yet much of the eastern half of PA 176 and the bulk of PA 177 have seen significant snow depths since mid-December. “We’re keeping an eye on that,” she said.
DNR wildlife managers will meet to decide on antlerless numbers later this month. And with most permit areas running below their population targets, hunters should expect a conservative approach. And hunters may be largely supportive of that, suggests Holmes, who said she’s received several calls from hunters urging caution.
“We will be listening to hunters,” said Holmes. “I do appreciate the folks who have called me and expressed their concerns.”