Several winter storms in the past two weeks might deliver a knockout punch to perhaps 30 percent of the white-tailed deer in this region. The state has seen this before, but thankfully the whitetail is prolific enough to withstand just about anything Mother Nature sends its way.
Details of northern Minnesota’s historically high winter severity levels (already in the Top 10 of all time worst winters for deer) were reported by B105 Country earlier this week. Here’s a bit more detail to what’s going on in the Land of 10,000 Lakes:
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The WSI is a gauge wildlife scientists derived more than 50 years ago to track winter’s effect on whitetails. It is amazingly accurate when it comes to estimating the weather’s impact on herd survivability and spring fawning success. In short, a region is assigned 1 point for every day that includes a low temperature of below zero (not including wind chill), and 1 point for every day that has an average snow pack of 18 inches or more on the level.
Variations of the WSI are used throughout the North, and records have been kept since 1960 throughout cold-country states such as Minnesota Wisconsin and Michigan, but a WSI tally of less than 50 is considered mild; 50 to 79 is moderate; 80 to 99 is severe, and over 100 is very severe.