Wildlife faring OK so far this winter, but March can be a make or break month, managers say

Feb. 17—GRAND FORKS — Winter got off to a harsh start, but after a cold, snowy December, Mother Nature mellowed out, and deer and other wildlife seem to be holding their own, wildlife managers in North Dakota and northwest Minnesota say.

"We kind of had our end of January, beginning of February (weather) in December, it looks like," said Casey Anderson, wildlife chief for the North Dakota Game and Fish Department in Bismarck.

In most cases, he says, deer should have had enough energy reserves to withstand the weather wallop Mother Nature delivered in December and even earlier in November.

Going into January, nearly all of North Dakota was blanketed in snow — a rare occurrence on a statewide level — but bare ground now is appearing in many areas, and deer seem to be spreading out more, Anderson says.

"They're probably not able to build up much reserves during this time, but they can survive pretty easily just because of the quality of forage that's out there," Anderson said. "As far as the early part of winter, we know we lost some deer. Time will tell how many, exactly. I could never give you an exact number."

Pheasants also seem to be doing OK, he says.

"The one thing we didn't hear too much about was people finding a lot of dead pheasants," Anderson said. "Sometimes, that happens when it starts to melt a little. People might find them in spots, but we have not heard a lot of that — just a few isolated incidents.

"As long as winter keeps going the way it's trending now, I would say we got off lucky."

In the northeast part of the state, deer also "seem to be doing alright," said Brian Prince, wildlife resource management supervisor for the North Dakota Game and Fish Department in Devils Lake.

"A lot of the herds that we're seeing out there are — we call it behaving — because they're not spending all their time in farmyards trying to get a bite of hay or things like that," Prince said.

Warmer temperatures in January and so far in February — this week's midweek cold snap aside — have helped to ease the stress on deer, he says.

"We're not hearing about a bunch of deer that are dying, so that's a good thing," Prince said. "I think our deer herd is doing well for where we're at and the snow conditions that we've got, just because of the moderate temperatures."

Snow depths seem to be on par with last year, he says, but temperatures have definitely been more favorable.

"We were a lot colder last year going through February, and that just ate away at the energy reserves on our deer and elk — and turkeys, for that matter," Prince said. "That pushes them into kind of a panic situation" in an attempt to get that next bite.

"We're not seeing that this year," he said. "It's been pretty good in most places."

Depredation complaints of deer or other wildlife getting into livestock feed supplies in his work area are down about half from last year at this time, Prince says, but areas farther south — especially near Jamestown — aren't as fortunate. While Prince has gotten 17 deer complaints, six elk complaints and one turkey complaint so far this winter, the Jamestown office had fielded 59 deer complaints as of Monday, Feb. 13.

"They've really gotten socked down there for one reason or another," Prince said.

Deer also seem to be faring OK in northwest Minnesota, managers say.

"Obviously, the month of December kind of worried us," said Doug Franke, acting assistant wildlife manager for the Department of Natural Resources' Northwest Region.

It's not often, Franke says, that he receives complaints early in the winter of deer causing issues in stored forage or other places they shouldn't be, but the calls started right away in December.

"It did taper off," he said. "January was kind of a relief. Temperatures moderated, there was very little snow in the northwest in the month of January and all the way into the middle of February.

"Deer, especially, have been given kind of a reprieve, if you want to call it that, from winter."

Still, points are beginning to accumulate in the Winter Severity Index, a measure the DNR uses to calculate the impact of cold and snow on deer. Points accumulate for each day with at least 15 inches of snow on the ground and temperatures of 0 degrees Fahrenheit or colder. The WSI can increase by 2 points a day if both conditions are met. A value of 50 or less at the end of the winter indicates a mild winter, while a value of 120 or higher indicates a severe winter.

Currently, the WSI is probably in the "mid 60s and 70s" across most of northwest Minnesota, Franke says.

"It doesn't indicate a harsh winter by any means," he said. "Right now, we're probably looking at an average winter."

Still, there are places where deer can't move around as freely and are confined to well-packed trails.

"We have deer trailing pretty consistently — they're not just going willy-nilly wherever they want to," said Randy Prachar, manager of Roseau River Wildlife Management Area near the Manitoba border. "It is confining to them, in other words. If that keeps on going into, let's say, the first week of April, it probably will have an effect."

To date, though, this winter seems less severe than last winter, when the WSI at Roseau River exceeded 100 points by winter's end, Prachar says, a number largely driven by snow depth.

"Last winter, a lot of fawns succumbed to the winter," Prachar said. "We've got wolves around here, but that wasn't the primary driver of that. Last winter, I probably saw four dozen different carcasses here or there, and almost every one of them was a fawn."

How the winter of 2022-23 ultimately plays out for wildlife remains to be seen. March can be a "make or break" month, depending on the weather. There's an old wives tale that days with thick fog mean rain or snow 90 days later. If so, a spring blizzard isn't beyond the realm of possibility, given the abundance of fog in January.

"We've got winter left," said Prince, the Devils Lake wildlife manager. "It looks pretty good on the forecast and as we get into the month of March, things are going to moderate a little bit more, hopefully, and we can pull out of this winter season.

"I'm cautiously optimistic that we're going to do OK."