The winter of 2014-'15 was a mighty cold one. Last month was the coldest for average February temperatures (18.9 degrees fahrenheit, 12 degrees below normal) in the Lehigh Valley since Feburary 1934 (16.6 degrees). Spring, which arrives March 20, can't come too soon.

When I wrote this column, the overnight weather forecast was: four inches of snow, wind gusts up to 60 mph, wind chills ranging between 20 to 30 degrees below zero and drifting snow. My wife, Bev, after listening to this forecast, said she didn't remember wind chills this severe in the Lehigh Valley.

The cold weather and about one foot of the 24.7 inches of snow covering the ground was a boon for ski areas. Extended periods of very cold temperatures and snow-cover are not a boon for the Keystone State's official mammal, the white-tailed deer.

The white-tailed deer, Odocoileus virginanus, is a browser. The average 100-pound deer needs to consume from two to seven pounds of vegetation per day to remain healthy.

While this amount of food is plentiful and easy to obtain during fair weather days in spring, summer and fall, it becomes more and more difficult for deer to find food when snow and ice cover the land for days or weeks at a time.

Winter is a critical time for deer. February and March are the most difficult months for the deer of Penn's Woods. This, however, is not an open invitation for individuals to begin providing food for deer. Although it's not illegal to feed deer in Pennsylvania, as it is for elk and black bears, it is highly discouraged.

If you feel compelled to feed deer, do not provide corn. Food provided by well-meaning people can have unintended consequences. A dead bull elk was found in Pennsylvania's elk range in Byrnedale, Elk County, on Jan. 9, 2014. Test results revealed the 6- by 7-point trophy male elk died from rumen acidosis, a disorder that affects wild deer and elk and animals like cattle and sheep.

Rumen acidosis is caused by a sudden introduction of carbohydrates, usually grain and corn, in a ruminant's diet. Although corn is readily available in the fall growing and harvesting seasons and is high on deer and elk's food lists, it is not a common food source during the winter.

The diets of wild deer and elk vary by their home ranges and often change throughout the year. Their bodies adjust to accommodate those changes, but if the diet changes suddenly rather than gradually, the ruminants' stomachs are unable to process an introduced food. The ingestion of too much introduced foods, like corn, can kill a ruminant as in the case of the trophy bull elk.

The struggle for winter survival occasionally forces deer to gather in one area called a "deer yard." Deer congregate to trample the snow, thus combining efforts to find available food on the ground and browse. This gathering, often on a protected southern-facing slope, provides warmth for the herd.

Ice storms compound these problems. When grass and other ground plants are covered with ice, deer depend more on the woody growths; twigs and tree buds.

Deer do not take care of their offspring first. It is survival of the fittest. Fawns and weaker deer are the first to die from starvation.

Areas with plenty of food often become denuded when there are too many deer. It creates an obvious browse line about five feet from the ground, the height the average deer can reach standing on its hind legs.

Deer populations are most healthy when the habitat supports the deer numbers. This is where hunting comes in. Hunting is the major management tool for a healthy deer herd.

Today, Pennsylvania's deer herd is healthy and much larger than when the state and United States were in their infancy. White-tailed deer have survived for millenniums without a helping hand. We are all better off and so are the deer if we stick to feeding and enjoying the local birds while the deer fend for themselves.

That's the way I see it!

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