Do we dare talk WSI ?
Wisconsin
After tonight we will have between 12-18 inches of snow in the Iacrosse area. This makes for a long winter for the deer.
Taylor county were around 18 - 20" so far this year. Mud underneath. Packing trails tomorrow for firewood cutting and coyote cable restraints.
Spring weather affects deer when their reserves are down. So I don't worry until the end of February or March. I do worry if there is an icy crust on top. I know that can greatly affect a deers ability to move. A couple years ago I tried to snow shoe one day around the 1st of the year. Almost every step was punching through about 1/2" of crusty stuff on top of power. I made it about 80 yards and had to give up, the effort require to move was immense. Another problem with a crusty top is that predators can run on top but deer can't. Even if the predator is unable to kill a deer, they can run them until they are exhausted. Or even just harass them enough to cause them to spend too much energy to make it through the winter.
This is a good topic for late February.
I agree with 48, too early to worry,,,, and lets look at a few things,,,, right now there is less snow in Iron Co MI, than in the N kettle moraine.......... must be global warming
Speaking of critters chasing deer on crusted snow... Snow wasn't crusted but a yote chased a fawn past me last week and stopped where I had a 15 yard shot. I will just say, I did not get him, shit happens.
The snow was packed down already through the woods next to the trail this morning from all the critters. No deer, just small game and yotes.
Can deer freeze to death in this weather?
I have found deer in late winter, that I believe did die from the cold, but mostly it was due to deep snow, extreme cold, stress from predators and poor winter habitat,,,,,
Habitat is the key,,,, deer can handle a lot, but they need good yards, and good browse areas......
Even with the extreme cold the last couple weeks, I believe that the deer in my part of the world. (St. Croix and Polk County) are just fine right now. They had plenty of access to food and decent temperatures since the end of gun season.
Thankfully with a 3-5 inch base of snow on the ground prior to these cold temps, the deer should have been pretty insulated. It would have been a lot worse if no snow on the ground. Barring a warm up, the snow should stay pretty soft for a while, and will allow the deer to travel through it without much extra effort, while not providing any advantage to the predators.
Without the Acorns this year, the crop fields and food plots will be hit hard, so hopefully March and April are not too cold nor do we get much snow.
I'm not going to worry now, but we'll see in 3 months.
Just another reason why I am trying to get more pines growing on my property, to offer some bedding areas that provide some relief to the deer in winter.
the weather forecast sure looks to be improved up north and throughout the state. No below zero temps for the next 7-10 days. Just a decent winter again will make a world of difference up north.
MF-How much snow on the ground in northern Bayfield County?
It is looking better up north with mild temps following some pretty cold weather. If we have a "typical" winter up north, the herd should be ok with all the logging going on. I did see that the north could get a big snowmaker Christmas Day. I will start to become concerned if winter drags on and spring does not come on time as many above mentioned.
However, things can change in a hurry where I hunt with lake-effect snow, big snow storms and late melts offs. I remember how the last severe winter started off around 2012 or 2013 because I was literally surrounded by it. I drove the 6 hour trip to gun hunt Thanksgiving through Sunday morning since I missed opening weekend. Because it was not terribly cold and no snow on the ground to speak of, I was planning to do some cold weather camping. There wasn't much snow in the forecast when I went to bed, so the next morning I was in complete shock to have 18 inches dumped on me. I was maybe 5 miles inland of Lake Superior and apparently the snow bands from the lake lined up perfectly with my location and dumped snow all night.
I had no shovel to dig out and to get my truck up a small hill where I could then get some momentum to get out of the woods and onto the gravel road, so I used a lid from a plastic tote to dig a path for wheels for about 80 feet to top of hill! I worked in panic thinking I would not get out and there was no one around for miles in this remote area. No cell phone reception either. Walking back to a main road would have meant walking nearly 5 miles in 18 inches of snow. Luckily, I had parked my truck facing out and I got enough speed going to get up over the knoll on the logging road and out to the gravel road where I white-knuckled it to blacktop near Herbster. I believe a few days later a huge storm hit and if I remember correctly, Ashland got over 20 inches.
Dampland, when your pines get bigger, note how the deer bed for thermal cover. Without fail, they bed on the SE side of the main trunk. I have seen this consistently. Not sure why, if it is prevailing NW winds or first sun AM (areas I see don't get direct sun). All said, they do like pines when it gets colder!
If you find a dear deer there is one simple thing to check to see if it is from starvation. The bone marrow will be like jelly or gone if the deer died from starvation.
Treefarm - great point!
I hope we don't get a bunch of rain that is in the forecast.....
The Christmas "Blizzard" forecast for much of the state is rain or wintry mix. Obviously not a good situation for the fluffy base of snow that we currently have which will turn crusty when it gets colder. The only exception is the extreme north part of WI which is forecasting snow. It's a few days away, but definitely something to keep an eye on.
In the north there is almost always some winter kill in remote areas, just a question of how severe. Best numbers are around subdivisions.
In Waupaca county the snow depth is not an issue. There are 2 layers of crust in places one on top of the snow and another about 4 inches down with water under that. Plenty of standing corn around me, some beans and of course browse. But it's only Jan. 1 and there is a long way to go.
Walked my property on 12/31 in Sauk Co., just north of Plain. 1-2" crust on top of 4-6" of snow over much of property. A few miles east, less snow & bare areas. Did not see as many tracks as normal for this time of the year. Saw two coyotes hanging from a tree in front of a neighbors barn. Glad to see someone is out getting them.
We pack trails with atv, skidsteer with tracks and 85 horse john deer 4 wheel drive tractor. Snow has settled some deer are really working food plots, acorns and soybeans.
While there is a crust in some areas I don't think the amount of snow we have on the ground in Lacrosse is even close to making it hard on the deer. Many of the fields have areas that are snowless. There are also areas in the woods where the sun hits that are clear of snow. Deer are very tough critters. There will always be those that don't survive no matter how hard of a winter we have. Right now I would bet the WDNRs WSI is low.
I worry about harsh winters constantly as well as crappy cold, wet spring for deer/turkeys/rabbits nd pheasants as well.
Snow depth map. Sorry, broken link. Next post.
http://www.nohrsc.noaa.gov/interactive/html/map.html?ql=station&zoom=&loc=40.60+N%2C+96.48+W&var=ssm_depth&dy=2016&dm=12&dd=26&dh=18&snap=1&o9=1&o12=1&o13=1&lbl=m&mode=pan&extents=us&min_x=-97.550000000001&min_y=40.574999999996&max_x=-82.191666666669&max_y=49.208333333329&coord_x=-89.870833333335&coord_y=44.8916666666625&zbox_n=&zbox_s=&zbox_e=&zbox_w=&metric=0&bgvar=dem&shdvar=shading&width=800&height=450&nw=1000&nh=1000&h_o=0&font=0&js=1&uc=0
Sorry for long link. It would not work in the link window. Copy and use "go to" to open the link. There you can zoom in/out or add features for snow depth.
Lots of bare ground in the SE. It rained yesterday and it's very foggy and wet right now. Temps are going to plummet today and be brutal for the next few days. It's a good thing we don't have much snow cover because they'd be in trouble if we did.
Crusader it would take an awful amount of snow, to put the deer here in SE in trouble,,,,, other than a few days, the snowmobile trails, have not been open in the State, in the Northern Kettle Moraine, in 3 years,,,,,, just think about that.......
No snow in the jet stream either for the next 15 days,,,,,,,, the deer will be in good shape, in the SE,,,,,,,,,, of course with me saying this, now watch a major storm come
I was thinking more along the lines of if we have substantial snow cover and now with this rain and hard refreeze coming it would make it tough for them to get through the layer of ice that would form on top of the snow. Good thing we have almost no snow right now so it is a moot point.
Deer are doing just fine. It takes a lot snow and cold to make a rough for them.
Third mild winter in a row (if it continues) should really help the northern herd. Haven't had three straight since the late 90s, when herd was very large.
Lots of water but almost no snow here in the SE. Our deer are happy healthy and getting fat. Hell, it's going to be warm enough down here I might put on my rubber boots and go golfing tomorrow if the sun comes out.
http://dnr.wi.gov/topic/wildlifehabitat/documents/wsiest2.pdf This is the latest info that I can find but I really don't think it changed drastically from this, as snowmobilers are complaining that there isn't enough snow and fisherman are falling through lakes. I think in early January there was a 5 day stretch that there was a pocket of 18" snow in northern Waupaca county. What are you seeing in the northwoods?
Snow is around 8 inches here in northern Sawyer CO. Six inches at some stations.
When opening the link you will have to go to the drop down menu to see snow depths.
Nice Link Smokey, thanks for sharing.
lets say the winter is going as well or better than we could expect. I know some friends went to Cable last weekend to snowmobile and couldn't get off the lake.
Only a handful of days below zero in January and the first week of February. Going to be one of the lowest totals ever.
Still seeing bucks carrying antlers here in central Wisconsin, deer look very healthy, and cruising around the woods isn't difficult at all in most areas. I would imagine the only critters having much difficulty this winter may be the grouse...
Toughest part of this winter up around Hayward is the rain that came on top of about 14 inches of accumulated snow. Usually that forms a crust of snow that allows predators to run on it but the deer break through and cannot run. I am sure that has happened in much of the area. At my place that 14" of snow got so much rain on it that it compressed down to about 6" of really hard frozen snow so I think that even deer could run on top of it to some extent. They probably find it hard to scrape through it to find food on the ground. It is so hard that when I plowed part of an access road into my woods a couple days ago I had a very hard time doing it with an S185 skid steer with tire chains on it. I had to drive through it first to break the crust up and then plow it. There is also about 6" of fluff on top of that. It was the first time I ever really needed a V plow.
Will this upcoming warm spell screw with the acorns at all? If it's warm for a few days, and right back to freezing, doesn't that mess with nature's clock?
Ya, it could screw up fruit trees too. Helps to bring another early bloom that is then at risk of getting frostbit like the last two years. I will be trimming some of my apple trees next few days.
I am out here in Merrillin pre fishing for a derby tomorrow and there isn't hardly any ice.
I'm fishing in at least 18" in Stevens Point. I wasn't expecting this much ice!
I just got home from the cabin....22 inches of ice on lower UP lakes,,,,, this warm spell will help the grouse, because with the ice crust, its been a disaster for them
