Growing up in northern Michigan, I never found that to be the case. After all the snow was gone I always wondered how the bark was stripped from sapplings and small branches eaten eight to ten feet up on the trees and bushes.........After I got older I realized the deer were standing in 4 feet of snow........
There was never a shortage of food but then again, there wasn't a growing predation by wolves either.
Lotsa pines where I hunt....They don’t care for the bark...When it gets real bad, deep snow stops them from finding any ground food. They yard-up and the wolves move in and take the young and the sick....