Another winter is upon us and with it comes a perilous time for wildlife. With deer populations throughout the state at some of the lowest levels in recent memory, many well-intentioned folks will be providing supplemental feeding to the deer in hopes of carrying a few more through the rough Maine winter.

The Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife (IFW) discourages this practice. They’ve issued several press releases and even produced a video describing the harmful effects of winter feeding.

You can find all that information on their website (www.maine.gov/ifw/) so there’s no need to rehash it here.

While it’s discouraged, the practice can sometimes help, if done correctly. There are also several other ways to benefit not only deer, but a host of other wildlife.

HEALTHY BROWSE

Lots of Mainers burn firewood. A simple firewood thinning can have both immediate and residual effects.

This time of year, the whitetail’s diet consists primarily of woody browse — twigs and sprouts. The downed tops of trees cut for firewood represent a sudden windfall of preferred food, of the type their complex digestive system is currently most well-equipped to digest.

The browse will also be a welcome treat to moose, hares and rabbits, the latter of which may even gnaw the bark well up the branches.

Let the tops lie where they fall for now to make them more accessible. Once the herbivores have gleaned them of their most nutritious ends, create brush piles that the rabbits and other small mammals and birds can use as shelters to protect them from predators and the elements.

Left to lie, larger tops may also prevent deer from browsing new growth underneath. In time, this will become thicker growth that could ultimately become dense bedding cover for the deer.

Thinning also effectively creates early successional habitat preferred by most game species. It allows more sunlight to reach the forest floor, stimulating more plant growth the following spring. Additionally, stumps from freshly cut trees will develop stump sprouts, providing an abundance of preferred woody browse in subsequent winters.

Be very selective about what and where you cut. Try to leave as many large, mast-producing trees, like oak and beech, as possible, while thinning out less beneficial species like maple and ash, which burn just as hot. You can also improve the health of trees you leave by thinning around them; and this applies to soft mast producers like apples, as well.

Deer wintering areas are typically dominated by dense softwood cover. Selectively cutting hardwoods adjacent to these areas provides more food in close proximity.

In many cases, the process of cutting and removing firewood, saw logs or pulpwood involves creating roads. The bare, rutted ground left behind may look like a mess, but it’s an ideal starting point for more wildlife habitat enhancement.

Next spring, add lime, fertilizer and clover and you’ll effectively create an instant salad bar for deer, grouse and turkeys in the form of long, narrow food plots. This valuable protein will also help them enter the next winter in better condition.

FOOD PLOTS

Spring is still a ways off, but if you have the means, you can also get a lot more involved in building food plots; and you should begin planning now. While folks have been doing it for decades in other parts of the country, particularly the South, it has caught on only recently in the Northeast. The process, quite simply, consists of planting agricultural crops for wildlife.

Food plots offer several advantages over supplemental feeding. Because the food is typically present through the fall and winter, deer have ample time to adjust their sensitive digestive systems to it.

With food spread over a much broader area, deer tend to be less concentrated, reducing stress and the potential for spread of disease.

There are myriad choices of what you can plant, but you can narrow them down into several distinct categories.

Warm-season feeding plots are intended to provide better year-round nutrition, and are often planted with annual or perennial plants high in protein.

Cool-season plots serve the dual purpose of attracting deer during the hunting season and providing additional nutrition during the fall and in some cases through the winter. As with supplemental feeding, it’s best if you can locate your plots away from roads, houses, dogs and anything else that might imperil deer.

Let’s hope the blizzard of 2010 is not a harbinger of the winter of 2011. Whether it is or not, there’s much you can do to influence the immediate and long-term future of local wildlife populations. And there’s no better time to begin than now.

Bob Humphrey is a freelance writer, registered Maine Guide and a certified wildlife biologist who provides consultation to private landowners interested in improving wildlife habitat. He can be contacted at:

bhhunt@maine.rr.com