The National Deer Association is pleased to name Jon Cooper of Virginia as its 2024 NDA Deer Manager of the Year Award winner, an award presented to a person or persons who demonstrate outstanding commitment to sound management of deer habitat and populations.
Jon is on the board of the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources and a director for the Appalachian Habitat Association. He actively manages his family’s 10,000-acre contiguous tract of land in the mountains of Botetourt County, Virginia with one guiding principle: habitat. Since the 1980s, Jon and his family have worked tirelessly developing a plan and implementing management strategies that have truly transformed the land. Despite the poor soil, rocky landscapes, and older forests, Jon began improving the land for deer and turkey by managing 100-acre blocks at a time. Through prescribed fire, forest stand improvement, invasive species control and food plots, each block provides everything a deer would need throughout the year including different timber stands and multiple vegetation types for fawning cover, forage and bedding cover.
“It’s an incredible honor for us to be recognized for this award. Awards certainly aren’t why you improve land. You improve land for the resource, to pass it on to the next generation and leave it better than when you found it,” said Jon. “Thank you to my Uncle Jerry who gave me the freedom to strive to increase the property’s carrying capacity and to my brother Matt for his help, support and showing me what a true woodsman is. I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the NRCS’s Andy Rosenberger for helping to equip us in many ways to manage land.”
Jon added, “Thank you especially to Dr. Craig Harper, Kip Adams, Matt Ross, Ben Westfall and the whole NDA organization for prioritizing deer management, collecting an unbelievable amount of data and equipping landowners and managers with the knowledge and practical ways we can manage our landscape in order to promote and improve the resource we all love.”
In 2024, Jon hosted the NDA’s Deer Steward 2 course and his hard work and commitment provided model examples for the attendees.
“Jon and his family are dedicated stewards of the land and have undoubtedly put in the work to create an ideal landscape for deer and other wildlife to thrive,” said Ben Westfall, NDA’s Senior Conservation Coordinator. “It is evident that conservation is his true passion and his enthusiasm to share it with others is what deer hunting and management is all about.”