Animals are entering bottleneck of winter

Fawn finds the least snow is beneath conifers

Whitetail doe also stays under cover

There is a time in the Boreal Forest when some animals simply are not going to survive the winter. That time begins now.
Two feet of snow have fallen in the past week. That makes nearly three feet on the ground in the Nolalu area. Travel is now difficult for whitetail deer and timber wolves and the snow depth even begins to restrict the activity of the longer-legged moose.

I clear trail through bush...

Deer are staying under the cover of conifer stands, especially balsam fir. Most of the snow in these places is caught up on the branches. There can be as little as a foot on the ground.
Timber wolves are no better able to travel atop the snow than the deer unless a thick crust forms, and that may actually be in store. Temperatures this week are expected to be several degrees above freezing in the day. The melting snow will freeze again at night and that is how a crust is made.
Some animals are adapted to stay atop the thick snow cover. Lynx, snowshoe hares, marten and fisher all have fluffy feet that act as snowshoes. So do ruffed grouse which have feathers

... and within minutes a deer takes advantage of the walkway

between their toes. Red fox can stay aloft simply because they don't weigh much. Ditto for red squirrels.
So it is the deer and moose that are most at risk. They will stick to their heavy cover, even if it means fasting from now until spring. They will tramp down a maze of trails and these will reduce the energy needed to move around.
Wolves, however, are not stupid. They know exactly the places their prey is likely to be and will hunt those spots thoroughly.
The heavy snow cover may send great grey owls southward. They arrived here about a month ago from farther north. Deep snow prevents them from reaching their prey of mice, in these parts, and lemmings farther north.
March is normally the month that brings the most snow so the situation could get even more serious as time goes on.

Snow now is taller than Cork

Snowbanks are up to the mailboxes along our road