We used to have rabbits everywhere, but a bad blizzard in '76 (iirc) killed off nearly all of them.
The nominal frost line is 3 feet deep, but it got so cold it drop below 4 feet. Only the rabbits that had burrowed below four feet survived. So we had 10 years ,here, with a closed season for any type of rabbit. And they are reintroducing snow shoe hares in certain locations. (Those you still can not kill).
They are legal to hunt now, but still thin on the ground. I do, however, find them in-city, and live trap them. I raise them for a short time, until I have a full cage, and then release them on my hunting land.
Hopefully, they will start a breeding population there. Rabbit is good eating.
