anyone watch this chart?? the index really spiked up in the last 2 week up in northern Minnesota. already pretty bad up in the Duluth area.
pretty easy to get to. go to the MNDNR website, click deer and put winter severity index in the search box. then click on the top topic.
https://files.dnr.state.mn.us/wildlife/deer/reports/wsi/WSI_Cty_Map.pdf
969CCA71-B3ED-4C03-AC35-8C124194B19F.png
I haven’t really ever paid attention to it.
The latest data shows through January 15th. The current ratings look pretty average, nothing really severe. However, there’s a lot of Winter left and the recent storm isn’t factored into the latest map.
This pic has no meaning as there were no deer in the arrowhead before winter because the Gray Wolf who only eats the old, the sick, the healthy and everything it comes across including moose and dogs has cleaned house.
Amen, Ed.
I follow the index pretty closely. A tough winter up by my willow river land is hard on the deer population.
I started supplemental feeding on my property. Yes, I get that it’s not allowed everywhere, but it is where I have land. No way was I going to sit and watch while deer tipped over dead like they did back in 2012. It takes surprisingly little feed to keep 30-40 deer alive and in good condition all winter. I use 5 barrels of corn for the entire winter from late December to the end of March.
A few pounds of feed spread 3X a day. I can go over 30 days before I have to refill feeders, so I only need to make 3 trips up to check on things and fill feeders all winter.
In addition to giving the deer the energy to outrun predators, I believe it improves fawn drop and increases the numbers of twins born. Taking that stress off the does, especially in the late winter and very early spring has seemed to make a huge difference because come June it seems like every breeding age doe has 1 or 2 fawns with her, I almost never see a doe that is obviously of breeding age that doesn’t have a fawn come June.
I get that this has no impact on the macro population, but I don’t hunt the macro population, I hunt my property.
Grouse
I live in that darker section in Carlton county, and I have fed deer at my house every winter since moving there in ’05. In the last 2 weeks the number of deer, and the frequency of their visits to the feeder, has exploded.
Almost every evening there are deer walking down our road when i get home. We have a cedar swamp a couple hundred yards away and they are in it bedding down, and only moving for food (there’s at least 3 of us that feed) on well established trails.
So far I’ve got at least 7 yearlings coming in with adult does, and so far they are looking good. Hope that continues.
Still looking good for the deer in the southern half of the state.
You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
