Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
CONIFERS PROVIDE shelter for deer at an Upper Peninsula winter yard. The trees prevent deep snow from hampering deer movement.
MARENISCO - A Thursday, March 3, meeting in Marenisco will offer private landowners advice on how they can maintain or improve deer wintering habitat and outline cost-share programs available.
The Michigan Department of Natural Resources has scheduled the session from 6 to 8 p.m. (CST) at the Marenisco Township Hall, at 314 Hall St.
To avoid deep snow, deer migrate each winter throughout most of the Upper Peninusla. to deer wintering complexes, often called deer yards, containing dense canopies of conifer trees, especially cedar and hemlock.
The important conifer shelter reduces snow depth and allows deer to move over connected snow-packed trails. The trail systems provide access to food and assist deer in evading predators.
In Gogebic and southern Ontonagon counties, the past three severe winters and subsequent decline in deer numbers have raised concerns about habitat conditions in winter shelter areas.
"To help improve habitat conditions for deer, the DNR needs help from private landowners. Of the 10.6 million acres of land in the U.P., roughly 20 percent is managed by the state.
"Predation, hunter harvest and winter severity all contribute to deer population fluctuations, however, winter habitat quality is the most important factor influencing deer population trends," said Gary Willis, Western U.P. DNR service forester. "Improving winter habitat is an action in which all landowners can make a contribution," Willis said.
The U.P. Habitat Workgroup, composed of natural resource professionals, private landowners and sportsmen's groups, has been working for several months toward increased habitat improvements in deer wintering complexes.
The March 3 meeting is an extension of those efforts, Willis said.
Recently, the MDNR mailed more than 500 letters to landowners whose property lies inside the boundaries, or within one mile, of the Lake Gogebic and Gogebic County deer wintering complexes.
The letters notified landowners of the Marenisco meeting, inviting them to attend to learn more about habitat improvement opportunities and what they can do to help deer populations.
At the meeting, DNR wildlife biologist Steve Carson will provide an introduction to deer wintering complex management plans, a general overview of deer winter range in the U.P. and general forest management guidelines.
Willis will discuss the Forest Stewardship Program.
Gogebic County Conservation District Forester Cory Howes will introduce the Forestry Assistance Program and detail cost share programs available to private forestland owners to improve deer habitat.
The meeting will conclude with a panel discussion featuring Carson, Howes, DNR field operations manager Bill Scullon, DNR wildlife biologist Robert Doepker and U.S. Forest Service wildlife biologist Brian Bogaczyk.
"My goal, in addition to making folks aware of the critical need to retain conifer stands in deer wintering complexes, is to ultimately reach out to private landowners in ways that have not been used before to encourage them to work with a resource professional to first obtain a forest management plan and follow up with management plan implementation," Willis said.
The initiative is expected to spread wider within the region, depending on the success of the initial efforts in the western U.P.
"Gogebic County is the test," Willis said. "We plan on implementing this throughout the U.P. if we're successful in Gogebic. Next would be Iron and Baraga counties."
