Courtesy Graphic provided by the Department of Natural Resources The map shows the snow depths across the Upper Peninsula as of Dec. 2. The arrival of deep snow in the area causes the deer population to act differently. The map was created by the Snow Data Assimilation System (SNODAS) Data from the National Snow and Ice Data Center. The Michigan DNR is using SNODAS to track snow depths.

ESCANABA — The whitetail firearm season may be over, but opportunities to harvest deer are still possible with the late seasons of muzzleloading and archery.

In the Upper Peninsula, the muzzleloading season is from Dec. 6 to Dec. 15 and the late archery season is from Dec. 1 to Jan. 1.

According to Wildlife Biologist Karen Sexton, of the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Escanaba Customer Service Center, the later whitetail seasons may be viewed as more challenging to hunters, but they provide unique hunting opportunities.

She explained with weather typically being colder and snow fall causing deer to migrate, hunters have to figure out where the deer are moving and may have difficulty sitting for long periods of time.

“It’s definitely a different hunt,” Sexton said.

When the weather begins to shift towards colder temperatures, ice and snow, deer begin to act differently.

“We typically say when snow depth is greater than 12 inches is when deer’s movement is really restricted and so it becomes much more difficult for them to go kind of in those openings,” Sexton said. “In forested cover, especially in good winter type habitats in some of those cedar lowlands areas where we know those types of trees intercept snow, the snow depth below is favorable for deer to move through. We tend to see deer congregate in those areas.”

She added, what she has been hearing from hunters is the deer have already migrated due to the heavy snowfall locally.

“I know those first couple of days of the muzzleloader, folks might have been able to hit a migration trail (and) they could still potentially be hunting those migration corridors,” Sexton said. “That’s kind of a unique hunting opportunity that is here in the U.P. that a fair number of folks will tune in to. Of course, those deer that have already migrated are holding up in those deer yards or better winter covered areas.”

Although overall the Upper Peninsula has seen a 5 percent decline in deer harvested compared to 2018 and a 10-year average, Sexton said the Escanaba office saw a similar season to the 2018 season.

According to Sexton, when it comes to reviewing statistics of the deer numbers harvested in the area, the DNR focuses around the 15-day-period of firearm season, as it tends to be when the majority of people hunt and when the majority of deer are harvested.

“So it kind of gives us the best understanding of what’s happening with the deer herd,” she said.

The Escanaba office checked around 450 bucks in 2018, while the office checked around 465 bucks this season so far.

“So that’s pretty close,” Sexton said.

She noted the difference between the numbers the Escanaba office was seeing and those seen other places in the U.P. more than likely indicated some of the deer across the U.P. were impacted by last year’s winter.

With one doe testing positive for Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) in Dickinson County’s Waucedah Township on a farm about four miles from the Michigan-Wisconsin border in 2018, the DNR has been requesting more deer within the CWD core surveillance area and the expanded area be tested this hunting season. The Core CWD Surveillance Area comprises some 660 square miles — defined by major roadways within portions of Menominee, Delta and Dickinson counties — around the site of the case. This was the first confirmed case of the fatal neurological disease in the U.P., and no additional cases have been confirmed in the peninsula.

CWD is a fatal disease of the brain and nervous system found in cervids (deer, elk and moose). The disease attacks the brain of an infected animal and produces small lesions that result in death. There is no cure, and once an animal is infected it will die.

In July, a series of deer hunting regulations aimed at slowing the spread of chronic wasting disease were approved by the Michigan Natural Resources Commission in Lansing. The regulations include a ban on baiting in part of the central U.P. designated as the Core CWD Surveillance Area. Consistent with regulations in the Lower Peninsula, there is an exception to the baiting ban in the U.P. Core Area for hunters with disabilities during the Liberty and Independence hunts.

The DNR has a goal of testing 2,654 deer heads from the core area and 609 for the expanded area. According to Sexton, as of Dec. 6 the expanded surveillance area exceeded its goal by 50 submissions, but the core surveillance area is falling short of its goal with only around 629 submissions.

“For the core surveillance area our goal was much more aggressive at 2,654,” she said. “That was to have an understanding of the disease at a prevalence rate of 0.1 percent.”

She noted the DNR wasn’t confident they’d reach the goal of 2,654, but with only 629 submissions it’d make it far more challenging for the biologists within the department to develop a better understanding of the disease in the Upper Peninsula.

“In other words, it means our confidence in understanding the disease within that area is weakened or less than if we had a greater number of samples,” Sexton said.

The DNR are still accepting deer heads for testing. Sexton said drop boxes for the heads will be out until the first week of January. She said for the rest of January, hunters can bring their deer heads for testing at DNR office locations. Hunters are asked to call ahead to make sure there is staff available at the office.

For the core surveillance area there is a unique opportunity for hunters during the late archery season — hunters within the core area can use a crossbow.

“One of the reasons for providing use of crossbow within the core surveillance area is because the department recognizes that without use of bait there’s additional challenges. So crossbow just provides another tool for hunters to use to try overcome some of those challenges with not being able to bait.”

A misconception about muzzleloading season is hunters think they can use a rifle during the season in the core area, but they cannot. Rifles cannot be used during muzzleloading season in the U.P. at all.

Sexton explained the confusion comes from the words “CWD core surveillance area” and “CWD management zone.” In the handbook, it notes hunters within the CWD management zone can use a rifle during muzzleloader season. The CWD management zone is the Lower Peninsula.

“This was a confusion last year, as well,” Sexton said. “The department did a press release promoting that opportunity, and in the Escanaba office we had a hand full of calls that we had to respond to.”