KQDC Report---Attn MM
Musky Master--I think you said you had a camp in this area---any comments? It looks like even with reduced deer numbers they can't get any regeneration and the predators are giving the fawns trouble. Interesting survey at the end.
The KQDC after 10 years
Last changed: February 14. 2010 5:00AM
The Kinzua Quality Deer Cooperative started out as a 10-year project. The 10 years is now complete, but is the project finished?
Whether or not the KQDC is finished remains to be seen. Kevin McAleese of the Sand County Foundation said the information gathered so far has left questions remaining. However, going after answers to these questions would be expensive. Acquiring funding could be difficult and could fall upon cooperating landowners.
The KQDC started in 2000 when a group of foresters, landowners, biologists and hunters were brought together under the guidance of the Wisconsin-based Sand County Foundation, a nonprofit organization that works with private landholders to improve natural habitats on their land. Goals were determined to be restoring quality deer and quality habitat, improving hunter satisfaction and reducing the need of fencing to protect habitat from browsing deer.
An additional but unstated benefit to hunters is encouraging landowners to leave their lands open to public hunting rather than shutting it off by leasing or other posting. Hunters, essentially, were making the decision of whether they were willing to trade higher deer numbers on lands they could not hunt for fewer deer on lands open to hunting by the general public.
The KQDC area is about 74,000 acres. In addition to the Allegheny National Forest, cooperating landowners are the Bradford Water Authority, Forest Investment Associates, RAM Forest Products and Kane Hardwoods, which is a Collins Company.
Although plots with no deer impact increased greatly as deer density declined, forest regeneration has been disappointing. One unanswered question is whether results would be different with less forest canopy blocking light to the ground.
Deer density has successfully been reduced on the KQDC. When the program began, average deer density was just less than 30 per square mile. After a modest decline in 2004, deer density dropped precipitously to 14.4 per square mile. Between 10 per square mile and 15 per square mile had been stated as an original goal. Density has hovered since in this range.
However, deer density has been unevenly distributed. Hunters have been concentrated on Allegheny National Forest land, public land where they have traditionally hunted. Although one of the benefits of the KQDC has been access to private lands, for various reasons most hunters have not utilized this land.
This is most acute in the north section of the KQDC where 71.7 percent of the deer harvested have come off national forest land. Hunters tend to be most numerous along Route 321 between Marshburg and Corydon.
Harvest, at least, is shown by data that has been collected at deer check stations. One piece of information gathered at the check stations is plotting the locations of deer kills on a map with pins. Pins are overwhelmingly concentrated on national forest land.
Every year since 2004, the lowest deer density has been on the Allegheny National Forest, while the highest deer density has been on Collins Pine land every year from 2002 through 2008. The following year deer densities were highest on Bradford Watershed land but were similar on all private lands.
Each year, deer densities have been checked using the pellet group count method at several locations throughout the KQDC. The most recent deer density figures that are available, before the 2009 hunting season, show that deer densities on national forest land generally vary from less than 4 per square mile to less than 15 per square mile. At the same time, deer densities on private land have been about between 17 per square mile and 29 per square mile.
Other than deer hunters being creatures of habit, access has been accepted as a major reason that more hunters do not hunt deer on private land in the KQDC. Most years, maps showing the areas with the higher deer densities have been made readily available to hunters. This has made no noticeable influence on deer hunters.
The most important result of the KQDC Project would be applying the things learned here elsewhere. This hunter distribution information can be used as a valuable tool for large-scale deer harvest strategy. Apparently the only effective way to control deer harvest is by micro management, though on an unreasonable scale. Some means of distributing deer hunters should be devised.
The most notable impact on the forest has been the percentage of plots that show no impact by browsing deer. However, forest regeneration has not improved accordingly. The percentage of plots with no regeneration has improved only slightly.
While forest managers have not yet realized great benefits in potential forest yield, hunters have seen significant improvements in deer quality. Deer are heavier. Antlers are wider, have improved beam diameters, and the number of points has increased. The ratio of bucks to does has improved.
However, the number of does produced per fawn has not met expectations, probably because of increased influence of predation. The KQDC has high numbers of deer, bear and bobcats.
Of course, many hunters are dissatisfied with lower deer density. But a poll of KQDC hunters this winter indicates that even the most dissatisfied hunters are seeing positive results. A surprising 88 percent still favor antler restrictions. But only 44 percent favor the concurrent antlered and antlerless deer seasons, and a dismal 33 percent approve of the October antlerless deer seasons.
post edited by S-10 - 2010/02/19 12:09:34