You put food in the freezer to keep it preserved.  Freezing, for our practical purposes, suspends biological activity.  Food doesn’t rot because cellular activity stops. Because cellular activity is stopped, it won’t rot. Putting stuff in the refrigerator is a little different matter.  Because the water within cells is not frozen, activity continues - but is very slow.

Same thing happens with plant life in winter under the snow.  The outside air temperature might be minus 20, but down underneath a thick insulating layer of snow - at or just below the soil’s surface - the temperature may be near – but not quite freezing. Since the soil isn’t frozen solid, biological activity can continue.

That’s why springtime is such an invigorating season here in deep snow country.  The snow insulates the soil from extreme temperatures, and when the snow melts away, plants often are already green and growing!

As the snow recedes, green growth advances right behind. This tender, tasty, and nutritious green herbage is a wonderful treat to animals who have subsisted on winter’s tough dry forages.  That’s why those animals who migrate to summer ranges often are found just behind the snowline on their way up or to the north. From the University of Wyoming Cooperative Extension Service, I’m Eric Peterson.