With two severe winters over the past three years and what seems to be a harsh first half of winter here in southern Maine, many people who hunt or enjoy watching deer are already wondering: How is the deer herd faring this winter?

The deer herd is an economic engine for all of Maine. The health of Maine’s deer herd drives the fall hunting season, attracting more than 170,000 hunters. How plentiful deer are is more important to hunters than issues such as Sunday hunting or license-fee increases. Increasingly, watching deer and feeding deer are becoming more popular throughout the state as well.

The Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife closely monitors the effects of winter on the state’s deer herd, recording data weekly in deer wintering locations throughout the state that allow biologists to compare this year’s winter with past years and then fairly accurately predict deer survival rates.

Knowing approximately how many deer survive in an area is an important tool that allows biologists to increase or decrease the number of any-deer permits available to hunters. If it is a harsh winter, the number of permits decreases, allowing more female deer to breed in the fall. If it is a mild winter, permits increase in order to keep the deer herd stable.

Deer survive Maine’s harsh winters by wintering over in deer yards. Deer yards are forested areas where the effects of winter are countered by a thick evergreen canopy that protects deer from heavy snow and extreme temperatures. In deer yards, snow depths are shallower, temperatures are moderated and winds are subdued compared with open areas.

This year, the department is monitoring 26 deer wintering stations where hourly temperatures are recorded automatically and biologists visit once a week in order to record how deep the snow is and what the sinking depth is for the snow. This data is recorded from the first week in December until mid-April. Once completed, the data collected will be compared with data from past years, which gives biologists a fairly accurate tool for determining how deer fared over the winter.

Maine is at the northern edge of the white-tailed deer’s range. Wintering habitat is the key to deer survival, and there has been plenty of discussion as to how best protect deer yards in Maine. While that is a discussion best saved for another column, it is well known that the decreasing number of wintering areas throughout Maine have affected the ability of Maine’s deer herd to survive winter.

Maine’s wildlife biologists monitor deer yards, conducting aerial surveys each winter to map and monitor deer yards. Maine’s deer wintering landscape is ever-changing as large tracts of forestland continues to change hands.

How precarious are Maine’s deer yards? In 2006, the state of Maine swapped state-owned land as part of the deal in the Katahdin Lake land deal, which added the Katahdin Lake area to Baxter State Park. Even though there was specific language in the land swap to protect the existing deer yards on the property that was exchanged, according to IFW biologists, some of these deer yards were nearly immediately logged for their valuable timber, leaving little winter cover for the deer.

And this problem is not just in the wilds of Maine’s northwoods. Lee Kantar, Maine’s lead deer biologist, said the department has had to move four winter weather monitoring stations in the past few years due to cutting in wooded wintering areas. Kantar also said deer have fidelity to their wintering cover, making preserving existing yards even more important.

So where are we right now as far as how this winter is affecting deer?

“The early series of snowstorms were not good. We were getting restrictive conditions the end of December,” said Kantar, who added that recently, the storm-free weather has helped ease some very restrictive conditions.

However, Kantar did add that some areas are crusting over, which can be difficult for deer.

“In a lot of Maine there is a very firm surface, so its tough for deer where they are busting through, and predators like coyotes can stay on top,” said Kantar.

“Looking forward, the key is snow depth and the longevity of the winter. The longer deer have to stay under cover, the harder things are,” said Kantar.

“What we really need is another moderate to mild winter in order to get us back on track,” said Kantar, “but we really do have almost two more months of waiting and seeing as to what is the winter severity. We’ll know by the end of March which way we are headed.”

So even though just a few short weeks ago on Groundhog Day Punxsutawney Phil didn’t see his shadow and predicted a short winter, here in Maine, we will wait and rely on years of accumulated data before saying that winter is over for Maine’s deer herd. Perhaps Kantar put it best:

“It’s all wait and see right now.”

Mark Latti is a former public information officer for the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife and a registered Maine Guide. He can be reached at:

mlatti@gmail.com

 

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