Bow hunters will again take to tree stands in Ottawa Hills this fall, on the lookout for white-tailed deer.

Their goal is to kill twice as many as they did last year in order to keep the village’s growing deer population in check.

Village Council members unanimously approved a controlled deer hunt for the 2017 season, the second of its kind after voters in 2015 approved a measure that allows council to authorize the hunts as needed. Voters previously rejected a proposal to have sharpshooters cull the heard rather than archers.

Bow hunters killed 30 deer in last season’s hunt, which was the limit set by council members after deer counts placed Ottawa Hills’ white-tailed deer population at 36. That count was down by nearly half from 2015, when the count tallied 75 deer in the village.

Ottawa Hills Mayor Kevin Gilmore said this year’s count is back up, which is why the village will allow hunters to bag 60 total.

Aerial surveys counted 74 deer in the village, with 36 west of Talmadge Road and 38 to the east. The village fielded 18 calls for dead deer assistance in 2016, according to village data.

“With the numbers still so high, we have to continue to do something,” Mayor Gilmore said. “There are no natural predators of deer in this area, so the right thing to do is to keep the deer number at a pretty modest number where it should be so that they can be healthy.”

He said the 2016 hunt went “very smoothly” with no incidents reported, and he expects this year’s hunt will be the same. Archers again will need to apply to participate and will be screened on their bow-hunting proficiency.

Ohio’s archery season for deer opens Sept. 30.

Metroparks of the Toledo Area uses sharpshooters to control the white-tailed deer in the park system and to reduce the ecological damage tied to burgeoning herds.

This year’s hunts, approved by the Ohio Division of Wildlife, took 150 deer from Oak Openings Preserve in January and 50 from Swan Creek Preserve in February.

The deer kill at Swan Creek was delayed because Toledo city leaders raised legal issues about the cull violating municipal law that prohibits hunting and discharging a firearm within the city. An ordinance allowing a waiver to the park district to conduct the deer cull failed 5-6 in a council vote Jan. 24 but was approved 8-4 two weeks later.

Contact Sarah Elms at: selms@theblade.com or 419-724-6103 or on Twitter @BySarahElms.

First Published June 27, 2017, 4:00 a.m.