by Kevin Strauss

Many of us get together with relatives over the holidays. These gatherings give us a chance to reconnect with friends and family and feast on holiday turkey. But humans aren't the only ones gathering at this time of year. While it isn't any kind of “family reunion,” deer are gathering or “yarding” in the north country as well. One important deer yarding area around here is near Winton where you can find deer tracks, trails and scat all over sections of mixed evergreen woods.

Why deer yard

According to Minnesota Department of Natural Resources researchers, yarding helps northwoods deer in a number of ways.

“It is probably an anti-predator strategy,” said DNR deer researcher Glenn Del Giudice. “A deer is less likely to be picked off by wolves if it is in a large group.”

Yarding areas are often evergreen stands where the pines, firs and spruce block the wind and can hold almost half of a year's snowfall in their branches. With more snow in the branches and less on the ground, it is easier for deer to travel in evergreen woods. In addition, yarding deer stomp down feeding trails in an area, making it even easier for them to travel in the winter. Those trails are especially important for deer since their relatively small hooves make it difficult for them to travel in deep snow.

According to Del Giudice, deer in northeastern Minnesota are “obligate” yarders, they will yard every year. Deer in north central Minnesota , near Grand Rapids , are “conditional” yarders who may only yard when it gets especially cold or a lot of snow falls.

Snow dangers for deer

“Snow depth is a primary determiner of deer survival in the northwoods, not temperature,” said Del Giudice.

When we have a deep snow winter, it is harder for deer to find browse to eat, it takes more energy to travel in the deep snow and it is easier for wolves to catch deer who become exhausted and mired in deep snow.

It seems that both temperature and snow depth are triggers for deer to yard. If early winters stay warm or they stay relatively snow-free, deer may linger on their summer and fall ranges, but if the mercury drops or we get a good dumping of snow, deer head for sheltered evergreen stands or mixed fir, spruce and aspen stands.

Once deer arrive at their yarding area, they browse beaked hazel, red osier dogwood and cedar, as well as other shrubs.

According to Del Giudice, when we have a severe winter up here, like the winters of 1995 and 1996, the “carrying capacity” of the habitat shrinks. It is harder for deer to find food under all that deep snow and many deer starve. In the winter of 1995, 30 percent of does in the area died. Many of the does that survived the winter gave birth to stillborn fawns. The deer population dropped significantly. So when another severe winter came in 1996, only eight percent of does died.

This knowledge of deer population dynamics has an impact on deer management decisions that the DNR makes.

“A lot of people want more deer to feed or more deer to hunt,” said Del Giudice. “But when we manage to have more deer, we need to realize that this means that when we get a severe winter, we will lose many of them (to starvation and predation). Some people don't like to see deer starve, but that's what will happen when we manage for higher deer populations.”

The Ely Timberjay