Yep. I have seen the deer dig through 2 feet of snow to get at turnip bulbs and brassica leaves. A good plot looks like a mine field some winters. Holes dug all over the place. We had well over 2 feet here all last winter.....the browse gets sparse on the trees at lower levels.....and many guys will drop some trees for the deer. Many starved here last winter.....a tough one. Northern MN is like a winter desert at times.....not much available for the deer. The deer find places to yard up in this area. In spring....you can see the ribs sticking out from lack of nutrition. The deer can look pretty rough. THAT is where that rye comes in......some serious food at a high stress time. The clover comes on behind....when the rye gets a bit stemmy. Provides well for my deer all summer.
Have you read much about mineral stumps? Instead of hack and squirt junk trees just cut them off low to ground and let sprouts pop up. Gives deer browse low to ground. I’m sure you know all that though.
Had my land "logged" about five years ago now. Lots of great re-gen from doing so. I got allot of burr oak that was released by logging off red pines also, birch, and aspen, and more young pines. Also took out mature aspen.....and the shoots from those stumps provide lots of nutrition....as does the willows, hazel brush and so on. Mature pine does little for deer. Logging was the best thing I ever did for my land.
Mine was logged 2019-21. There are deer everywhere.
Regen and early successional stuff certainly helps a lot. It takes a lot of it because that browse can get cleaned out pretty quick if there is over a foot of snow on the ground for 3+ months straight.
