Title:

Long-term understory vegetation surveys under fluctuating deer densities from the Kinzua Quality Deer Cooperative, Pennsylvania

Author(s):

Royo, Alejandro A.; Slaughter, Mariah; Bahn, Volker

Publication Year:

2025

How to Cite:

These data were collected using funding from the U.S. Government and can be used without additional permissions or fees. If you use these data in a publication, presentation, or other research product please use the following citation:

Royo, Alejandro A.; Slaughter, Mariah; Bahn, Volker. 2025. Long-term understory vegetation surveys under fluctuating deer densities from the Kinzua Quality Deer Cooperative, Pennsylvania. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2025-0037

Abstract:

The Kinzua Quality Deer Cooperative (KQDC) was established in 2000 to test new approaches to stewardship of white-tailed deer and forest habitat throughout a 30,000-hectare landscape in northwestern Pennsylvania. Within this landscape, a coalition of land-management partners leveraged multiple tools offered by the Pennsylvania Game Commission to court hunters and intensify white-tailed deer harvest within the region. Understory vegetation plant community responses were tracked over a 20-year period to assess any changes in vegetation diversity and dynamics in response to fluctuations in deer herds. Data summarized in this data publication represent vegetation surveys across a 18-year period (2003, 2011, 2016, and 2021) tracking i) changes in richness and abundance of the entire understory vascular plant community; ii) changes in stem densities of woody regeneration; and iii) changes in abundance, size, and population structure of three liliaceous plants known to be sensitive to deer impact: Trillium spp., Maianthemum canadense, and Medeola virginiana.

Keywords:

biota; environment; Ecology, Ecosystems, & Environment; Plant ecology; Inventory, Monitoring, & Analysis; Botany; Wildlife (or Fauna); Mammals; browsing; deciduous forest; herbaceous species; Odocoileus virginianus; understory; white-tailed deer; regeneration; Pennsylvania; McKean County

Related publications:

• Rowan, Emily; Slaughter, Mariah; Dzemyan, John; Nelson, Brad; Royo, Alejandro A. 2024. The Kinzua Quality Deer Cooperative: Balancing white-tailed deer populations and their browsing impact to forests over two decades of local land stewardship. pp 13-23. In: Thomas-Van Gundy, Melissa (comp.); Adams, Mary Beth (comp.). 2024. Proceedings of the 22nd Central Hardwood Forest Conference: managing future forests today. Gen. Tech. Rep. NRS-219. Madison, WI: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Northern Research Station. 203 p. https://doi.org/10.2737/NRS-GTR-219
• Royo, Alejandro A.; Stout, Susan L.; deCalesta, David S.; Pierson, Timothy G. 2010. Restoring forest herb communities through landscape-level deer herd reductions: Is recovery limited by legacy effects?. Biological Conservation. 143(11): 2425-2434. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2010.05.020 https://research.fs.usda.gov/treesearch/36550
• Slaughter, Mariah; Royo, Alejandro A.; Bahn, Volker. unknown. Lapse in deer density regulation reverses gains made in plant community recovery. Journal of the Torrey Botanical Society. [In review].

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