Bradford, Pa.:  The opening Saturday of firearms deer season on the Kinzua Quality Deer Cooperative (KQDC) was a good day for Colton Eschrich from Bradford, Pa.  Colton harvested and then brought an antlered deer to the KQDC Deer Check Station on SR 59.  Colton’s buck dressed out at 143#, had nine points, and was found to be 3 and ½ years old. 

Each hunter that harvests an antlered deer receives a raffle ticket for a $250 prize drawn after the Deer Check Stations close on the second Saturday.  Colton’s raffle ticket was drawn on Sunday, 12/8, as the winner of the $250 antlered deer raffle prize.  Congratulations, Colton.

Colton expressed his appreciation for the service the Deer Check Stations’ volunteers provide to hunters, and to the land managers that provide a quality place to hunt deer.

The KQDC is managed for Quality Deer and a Quality Forest Ecosystem to provide a Quality Hunting experience.  Other goals are to provide quality forests for landowners to manage for timber products, local employment, numerous outdoor recreation activities, and quality habitat for all wildlife.

The Kinzua Quality Deer Cooperative is an on-going demonstration, begun in 2000, of how hunting can be used to meet the goals of multiple publics for managing deer.  A partnership of forest landowners, forest managers, biologists, hunters, and local businesses developed the program which relies on hunters to manage deer density on a representative forested area.  The program is conducted on a 74,000-acre forested demonstration area in northwestern Pennsylvania.