Biologist Gary Alt will be the featured speaker at the annual KQDC (Kinzua Quality Deer Cooperative) Season Kickoff program on Oct. 30.
The KQDC Deer Season Kickoff is free and open to the public. The Deer Season Kickoff is held at the campus of Pitt-Bradford in the Frame-Westerberg Commons Mukaiyama University Room. Doors open at noon for attendees and the program will run until 4 p.m.
Alt’s presentation will feature how deer management in Pennsylvania has evolved over 125 years, and what he believes is needed today to ensure healthy deer, good deer habitat, and deer hunting continue to be an important part of Pennsylvania outdoor traditions.
Alt still hunts deer in northeastern Pennsylvania with friends and family near where he grew up. “Deer hunting is a treasured tradition,” he said.
Alt was the bear biologist for the Pennsylvania Game Commission from 1977 until 1999; during that time frame he developed new seasons and management methods which resulted in restoring the black bear population from its declining levels in the 1970s. Bear harvest went from a low of a few hundred bears per year to over 2,000 bears per year by the year 2000.
Today’s bear harvest continues to now exceed 3,000 bears per year. Alt traveled the state doing educational programs about Pennsylvania’s Black Bear, and was featured in the award-winning video documentary, “On the Trail of Pennsylvania’s Black Bear”.
In 1999, Alt was appointed to run the Deer Management Program by the Pennsylvania Game Commission. He instituted new, field-based research programs to gather data on deer survival, fawn recruitment, habitat conditions, hunting seasons and hunter activity. The research resulted in numerous changes to Pennsylvania’s deer seasons, deer harvests and long-term goals.
Alt traveled the state and conducted hundreds of programs to thousands of hunters and non-hunters across Pennsylvania in order to share the new information. He now remains active with many wildlife conservation organizations and is actively involved every year with Pennsylvania’s Wildlife Leadership Academy, has provided scientific service to numerous states on deer and bear management, and continues to lead tours in the western United States, Alaska, Africa, Canada, and Norway.
Alt also continues photo lectures on wildlife, and is featured in numerous magazines and other media.
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 KQDC is almost 75,000 acres of public and private lands managed to improve deer populations and habitat. The land is west of Bradford and north of Kane in McKean County.
