Harvesting antlerless white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) is one way of managing deer populations to achieve societal goals for the species. Cooperatives bring stakeholders together to meet common conservation goals, and have been a means to achieve desired harvests. The Kinzua Quality Deer Cooperative (KQDC) of Pennsylvania, USA, is an on-going cooperative initiated in 2000 to demonstrate how hunting can be used to meet stakeholder’s ecosystem goals. My study used interviews and questionnaires to examine governance factors contributing to the success and sustainability of the KQDC to reduce deer densities. KQDC stakeholders, such as landowners, managers, biologists, local businesses and hunters, reported characteristics such as effective communication, trust, and propensity to accomplish diverse objectives relative to deer and ecosystems as shared resources. To assess motivations and perceived constraints to deer hunting, as well as satisfaction derived from past hunting experience and future willingness to voluntarily hunt in areas with low deer densities such as the KQDC, I surveyed 1,008 hunters who purchased supplemental antlerless deer permits from 2007-2012. A variety of motivations and constraints to hunting of antlerless deer exist on the KQDC. My findings suggest long-term success and sustainability of cooperatives depends in part on 1) consistent recruitment of stakeholders on leadership team 2) hunters’ knowledge of, ability and willingness to participate in conservation objectives through outreach opportunities; and 3) stakeholder willingness to cooperate with diverse members and use of management tools available to them.
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