Great Idea for your term paper!
I would suggest that you go all over the PGC website for your facts and figures. Also check out QDM's website.

You'll get lots of material here as far as opinions but be careful using "facts and figures" from these pages. Quite a few of them have some factual basis but been taken out of context to the point that they are not reliable. Some have just been made up. Some are merely the opinion of a particular poster.

be careful with stuff like this:
While the 18% number is taken from the PGC study, other factors need to be considered. For example, Antler size is important in the establishment of breeding dominance. Some of those inferior bucks would still never breed. Another point is that some of those inferior racks wouldn't have been shot anyway due to the fact that small racks are more likely to get by the average hunter than large racks.It is indisputable that AR will allow many bucks to get older. That was the stated goal.


Antler restrictions are not necessary but, I believe, will help the overall health of our deer herd. Gary Alts stated mission was to balance the herd with it's habitat, reduce deer/human conflicts, balance the buck/doe ratio, and better manage the genetics of our deer herd. In the past, 85% to 90% of our bucks were killed by the time they were 1 1/2 years old.Yes that would include button bucks but the point is that 85 to 90% NEVER got past 1 1/2 years. A buck that age is roughly equivalent to a human in his early teens. Capable of breeding but not really ready, these young bucks were virtually all able to breed when the rut came along. Plenty (too many) of does to go around meant that most, if not all, would breed a doe or two.
If the bucks in the deer herd has a more natural mix of age classes and if there are not too many does, breeding becomes the reward to the buck that dominates in the area. I think most would agree that the allowing the best of the species reproduce is good for the long term health of that species.

There are many better ways to manage whitetails on a much smaller basis. Pennsylvania deer management, with over a million hunters, very diverse habitat, a huge deer population, is a huge undertaking. AR, management units, a higher statewide doe kill are all less than perfect fixes but they are getting us started in the right direction. As Gary Alt said, many mistakes will be made along the way. Expect more changes as we go. We have just gotten started.

Some things I think we all know:

AR will still allow some young bucks to die

Button bucks are still being killed in doe season

Some private land areas are still overrun with deer

Some public lands are under carrying capacity

Many AR critics point to these known problems but have produced no realistic ideas to correct them on a statewide basis

Some more facts we all know

There are still way more does than bucks in the woods and even if we assume (not proven yet) that doe kill is roughly 20% BB's that means we are taking out 4 does for every BB. Since there is no realistic way to stop the BB kill as a part of doe season it becomes much more important to protect those that we can reasonably recognize as young deer. As we begin to get the population in line with habitat, the doe kill will need to be reduced and more BB's will then have a chance to grow older as well

Many of our northern tier forests are overbrowsed in spite of the fact that the deer is lower than in past years

We still have areas with WAY too many deer

The buck kill has dropped some but the average quality of those harvested is way up in just two short years

The average age of harvested bucks is up as is the average age of those that still roam the forests

Some bucks with good genetic potential will be killed at 1 1/2 However, antone who has ever studied antler growth will recognize and agreee that the first set of antlers a buck wears is not necessarily an indication of his genetic potential. Many spikes and small Y bucks experience phenomenal antler growth in subsequent years.

Remlover, Butler is not that far from Cook Forest. Take a Saturday afternoon and visit the Double Diamond deer ranch on Rt 36 just south of Cooksburg. They have the sheds in succession from 1 1/2 on through for most of their bucks. A lot of 1 1/2 wimpy bucks grew to become true monsters. Yes it's a captive environment but even with all the right foods, many bucks there had very small antlers their first year only to grow up and prove that age is very important to a deer developing his full potential.

Good luck on your term paper!