7 October 2023
Deer need two kinds of habitat to survive the snowiest winters in northeastern Minnesota, food and cover, and without both kinds, deer numbers tend to dwindle — just as they have for the past decade.
While there usually is enough food, namely aspen browse from recently logged-off areas, the amount of winter cover for deer has been shrinking, in some areas alarmingly fast.
A deer is dusted with snow while nibbling on balsam boughs in Duluth, Minn. on March 1, 2023. Dense forests of conifers — cedars, balsam, spruce and pines — are critical habitat for white-tailed deer to survive winter in northeastern Minnesota, especially with a trend toward heavier snow winters over the past decade. The evergreen trees keep snow off the ground, allow easier travel and can even keep deer warmer than the open forest. (Dan Williamson / Forum News Service)
That’s the assessment of several Minnesota Department of Natural Resources wildlife biologists past and present, and it’s the reason behind a growing effort to plant more conifer trees — evergreens like spruce, cedar and pine — that can shelter deer from snow and wind, reduce the amount of snow on the ground that deer must trudge through and even keep the coldest air from penetrating down, so-called thermal cover.
Our grandpas used to call these spots deer yards.
The DNR and North St. Louis County Soil and Water Conservation District have completed a five-year effort to plant and protect 63,000 spruce and oak trees across 300 acres along the St. Louis River near Forbes — north of Cotton and south of Eveleth. The land is managed by the DNR’s Forestry Division after it was donated by Minnesota Power years ago. The project was paid for through a Conservation Partner Legacy grant from the state.
This is one of many historic deer wintering areas that lost much of their ability to shelter deer due to declining conifer cover. (The new oak trees — expected to thrive as the region’s climate warms — will provide acorns that offer high nutrition for deer, bears and other critters.)
Crews from the DNR and conservation district are going back this autumn to mow down other trees and brush around those spruce trees to give them more room and sunlight to grow.
Eventually, those conifers will get tall and broad enough that their branches touch overhead — at least 70% of the ground covered is key — to shelter deer from the worst winters, said Jessica Holmes, Tower-area wildlife manager for the DNR and a key player in the planting project. Holmes’ massive work area covers wildlife from Cotton to the south to the Ontario border on the north.
“This kind of winter cover is the pinch-point for deer in this area, the most important thing deer need to have in our region, especially with the insanely snowy winters we have had recently,” Holmes told the News Tribune. “This kind of snow shelter is really critical for them to survive.”
Deer can — with thick, hollow hair that insulates their bodies — usually survive the coldest weather without problems, if they have food and cover. Not native to the Northland (they moved in from the south after the big logging boon and fires 100 years ago) they are not built for deep snow as are moose with longer legs. Deep snow greatly limits where deer can trudge to find food and shelter, and it makes them much more vulnerable to predators like wolves.
The conifer planting project also is expected to help other species in the area, including fishers, owls, eagles and goshawks.
Aspen wins the race, if you let it
Conifers have been diminishing in northern Minnesota for several reasons, said Tristan Nelson, district forester with the North St. Louis County Soil and Water Conservation District in Virginia. One of the biggest reasons is that, as the land has been logged off several times, aspen tend to become the dominant species simply because they grow so fast. Aspen also is often more economically viable, with a “crop” ready to cut every 40 years or so, while evergreens can take twice that long to grow.
“Aspen just sucker out all over and immediately shade out any little pine or spruce trying to grow, so you get these giant stands of aspen and not much conifer regeneration,” Nelson noted.
A bucket of evergreen or conifer trees ready to be planted at a site in St. Louis County, Minn. With a little help from nature, and from foresters who will come back to clear away competing trees in coming years, these little spruce trees are hoped to eventually be big enough to shelter deer from harsh winter snows.(Courtesy of the North St. Louis County Soil and Water Conservation District)
That means even after thousands of conifers are planted, crews must go back regularly to clear out the competition around them. Eventually, the conifers will get big enough to do the shading and they will become the dominant canopy trees. And that’s when deer will move in for the winter as the snow piles up.
“It really helps them out, helps them conserve their fat when there’s not much nutrition available to them,” Nelson said of the deer under conifers. “It gives them a chance to make it through winter.”
Meanwhile, other projects have been completed or are underway to plant conifers and more oaks in the region:
Holmes’s wildlife area will benefit from another $40,000 grant to work with the Minnesota Deer Hunters Association to plant more conifer cover on other areas of the St. Louis River corridor, with the money coming from another Conservation Partner Legacy grant. The Sturgeon River Chapter of the deer hunter’s group also has kicked in $1,000.
“We’re increasing conifer cover across our area, from Cotton to Canada, when and where possible, either timber stand improvements or plantings,” she said.
That included a $10,000 grant for a project on the Echo Trail to clear around existing conifer trees, some planted and some naturally regenerated, to let them grow to a size large enough to eventually shelter deer.
Yet another project planted cedars near Orr in what’s called the Elephant Lake Deer yard, one of the largest deer wintering deer yards in the region where deer come from miles around to spend winter.
Northern deer coming off another tough winter
The deep-snow winter of 2022-23 — the seventh out of the last 10 years with well above average snowfall in some areas — seriously impacted white-tailed deer in northeastern Minnesota, especially north of Duluth, with some deer perishing outright due to the conditions and nutrition-stressed does having fewer or no fawns this spring. Duluth saw a record 140.1 inches of snow last winter, with even more snow in some locations to the north and east. Not only do more deer succumb to the elements during those deep-snow winters, but they also become more vulnerable to predation by wolves. The lack of new fawns born extends the impact far into the future, and it will take several normal or low-snow winters for deer numbers to bounce back. The good news is they can bounce back fast, as noted after severe winters in the mid-1990s and record deer numbers a decade later.
The declining regional deer herd spurred the DNR to again reduce antlerless deer permits available to hunters this fall and to make more areas bucks-only hunting. The management of those antlerless permits — fewer permits when deer are down, more when deer numbers are high — is the DNR’s primary way of impacting the herd.
The goal now is to increase deer numbers across much of the northeastern quarter of the state, except in the core moose range. Deer numbers may never get as high as they were 20 years ago, when record populations and harvests occurred. But the DNR and hunters are hoping more deer will be available to see and shoot in the coming years.
That’s what the habitat effort is all about.
The DNR also offers assistance to private landowners who want to improve habitat on their property. Go to the DNR’s private land habitat page at dnr.state.mn.us/privatelandhabitat/index.html. You can also watch a recording of a DNR outdoors skills webinar focusing on creating more wildlife habitat in your woodlands at youtube.com/watch?v=cXIMq1JJXPU.
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