MARQUETTE, MI— Heavy snowfall over this past winter may have significantly impacted the
U.P.’s deer herd.
The Department of Natural Resources says widespread signs of starvation were present in vehicle-killed deer in late winter and spring.
The Upper Peninsula logged 111 days with at least 12 inches of snow on the ground this winter, making it one of the harshest seasons in the past quarter-century for the deer herd. Mid-March blizzards dumped three feet of snow on parts of the U.P. in two days, adding to the already prodigious snowpack, and snow on the ground persisted into mid-May.
Deep snowpack makes food scarce for deer, hinders their movement and causes them to use up the fat reserves they built up over the late summer and fall. Two or more severe winters in a row are particularly hard on deer.
The winter of 2025-26 was the fourth-most severe winter since 2003.
