New Feature-Printing out Maps for Hunting

To print out maps for road access to the KQDC click on Map & Access

Also, annual report for 2009 is available, click on management updates.

The Kinzua Quality Area is 74,000 acres of public hunting in Northwest Pennsylvania where science-guided management is producing quality deer and quality habitat.  In just 7 years of liberal hunting seasons, deer body weights and antler characteristics have increased greatly.  Habitat for deer and other wildlife is returning to once great levels, and foresters are able to harvest trees without fencing areas to promote reforestation.  This wildlife and forestry success story is the work of the Kinzua Quality Deer Cooperative.  Read on to learn about the Cooperative and how to hunt on the Kinzua Quality Area.

About the Kinzua Quality Deer Cooperative (KQDC) 

    In 2000 a group of forestland managers, hunters, biologists, and foresters, with support and guidance from The Sand County Foundation,  formed the Kinzua Quality Deer Cooperative (KQDC).  The goals were to restore quality habitat and quality deer, improve hunter satisfaction, and reduce the need for fencing to protect seedlings, shrubs, and other understory vegetation such as wildflowers from excessive deer browsing.  Management actions to achieve these goals were conducted on the Kinzua Quality Area, located in northwest Pennsylvania.  Lands from the Allegheny National Forest, the Bradford Watershed, and private timber companies (Forest Investment Associates, RAM Forest Products, and Collins Pine Company) were pooled into a solid block of 74,000 acres and managed to achieve the goals.  Hunting on the Kinzua Quality Area is free and open to the public.   

    The Kinzua Quality Area is located in the northeast corner of the 500,000+ acre Allegheny National Forest.  Both are located in northwestern Pennsylvania just south of the New York-Pennsylvania state line.  The area is easily accessed from Pennsylvania’s I-80 on the south and New York’s I-86 on the north.  U. S. Routes 6, 62, 66, and 219 in PA lead there and make for scenic travel to the area.  Whether you're coming from the East, West, South, or North, getting to the Kinzua Quality Area is easy.

Science and Management of Deer

    Sound deer management is based on many years of scientific study: the white-tailed deer is probably the most-studied game animal in the world.  Studies of white-tailed deer in Pennsylvania and other mid-Atlantic states (including New York, Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia) have uniformly indicated that, in heavily forested areas with little farming or agriculture, when deer density exceeds 15-20 deer per square mile many forest resources suffer.  Wildlife habitat declines, abundance and variety of wildlife species (notably birds that nest in the understory) decline, deer condition declines, and regeneration of a diverse variety of shrubs and trees is negatively impacted.  From the 1920's until 2004, deer density in northwestern Pennsylvania exceeded 25 deer per square mile, resulting in a sparse, forage-poor understory, under-nourished deer, impoverished habitat, and a requirement that foresters fence regeneration sites to protect tree seedlings from overbrowsing by deer.  Hunters became accustomed to seeing dozens of deer opening day but refrained from harvesting does, hunting instead for antlered deer.  Most deer harvested were small, immature bucks (yearlings) with small racks.

    By the late 1980's the Pennsylvania Game Commission (PGC) determined that desired deer density in northwestern Pennsylvania was about 18-20 deer per square mile.  Initial PGC management steps to reduce deer density included increasing numbers of antlerless licenses and providing "bonus" licenses whereby hunters could get additional licenses to harvest antlerless deer.  Later, in the 2000's, additional PGC steps to reduce deer density included restricting buck harvest to deer with 3 or more points on at least one antler (which also served to increase number of bucks with larger racks), combining buck and doe seasons into one concurrent 2-week season, and initiation of a Deer Management Assistance Program (DMAP) whereby forest landowners could receive antlerless licenses to distribute to hunters to to increase harvest of antlerless deer.

    For more information, click on Deer Science.

The KQDC Management Strategy

    Beginning in 2000, the KQDC Leadership Team devised a management strategy designed to combine the PGC steps to reduce deer density with an outreach program to hunters.  Major components of the program include: increasing hunter awareness of deer hunting on the Kinzua Quality Area; providing incentives for hunters to harvest antlerless deer on the Kinzua Quality Area and bring harvested deer to checking stations; participating in the Pennsylvanina DMAP program by applying for and distributing coupons for DMAP licences on the KQDC Quality Area; involving hunters in volunteer activities; increasing road access for hunters into the Kinzua Quality Area; and improving quality and quantity of deer forage.  These steps, combined with those by the PGC to reduced deer density, have resulted in great improvements in deer quality, habitat quality, and reductions in need for fencing.  Assessment of hunter satisfaction is underway.

Hunt the KQDC  

    Every year, hunters from Pennsylvania, Ohio, New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Vermont, Connecticut, and other states come to the KQDC Quality Area to hunt for quality deer.  Click on any of these links to get information on: directions for getting to the Kinzua Quality Area; map of the area detailing access points, locations of check stations, areas of low hunter density, and areas of high deer density areas; and how to get hunting licenses, antlerless licenses, and DMAP licenses.  For information on local restaurants and motels and other recreational activities click on this website (www.allegheny-vacation.com).        

Become a Partner

    The Kinzua Quality Deer Cooperative is an active partnership among hunters, foresters, biologists, and land managers.  Hunters help to manage the deer herd by hunting on the area and harvesting buck and doe deer.  Foresters and landowners create food and shelter for deer by managing habitat through timber harvest, maintaining permanent openings, and seeding temporary forest openings such as roadsides, gas and oil well heads, and log landings.  Landowners help connect hunters with deer by opening and maintaining the many forest roads throughout the Kinzua Quality Area.  Each year volunteer hunters, foresters, biologists, and land managers collect the data used to manage the deer and habitat.  If interested, you may volunteer to get involved and participate in any or all of these activities:

 o     In spring, volunteers hike through the woods to collect information on deer density and habitat condition.  You may sign-up for the annual deer density/impact training session held each April on the Kinzua Quality Area.

o       In late summer, volunteers drive routes through the area, counting bucks, fawns, and does at dawn and dusk.  If interested you might drive along with one of the volunteers and count deer, or get your own roadside route to run (about 10 times, August 1 - September each summer).

o       In late fall, volunteers run check stations where hunters bring their deer to check deer health and antlers.  You can participate by working one of the checking stations and/or by bringing your harvested deer to one of the three checking stations.

Come to the Banquet

    Every winter there is a banquet that recognizes hunters who bring deer to check stations and volunteers who collect the data used in managing the deer and habitat.  The banquet is held at a local restaurant in February and provides a great meal, entertaining speakers, and a raffle that includes black powder rifles and other hunting gear.  At the banquet hunters get an annual update on the condition of deer and habitat on the Kinzua Quality Area.

Learn About the KQDC Demonstration Project

    If you have the time, read the Annual Report that details all the information collected for the KQDC project and details suggestions for management of the deer herd (by hunting) and habitat (by timber harvest).  If time is short, read the one-page summary given every year at the banquet.  Come visit the Demonstration Area, to be constructed in 2006.