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A deer walks along in the brush next to a trail in Wildwood Metropark. Sharpshooters have killed an undisclosed number of deer inside Oak Openings Preserve Metropark and Wildwood Preserve Metropark since the first week of January.
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Deer kill continues through March 31

THE BLADE

Deer kill continues through March 31

Shootings to go on despite January meeting

Sharpshooters have killed an undisclosed number of deer inside Oak Openings Preserve Metropark and Wildwood Preserve Metropark since the first week of January.

Park district officials said Monday the controversial kill remains on schedule through March 31. 

But there are claims that shooters are working feverishly to get most of the killings done before critics can voice objections at a Board of Park Commissioners meeting Jan. 27.

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“They know we’re coming,” one of the most vocal critics, Ron Leth, said.

Mr. Leth, who owns a house and another large tract of land near the Oak Openings preserve, disputes the need for the cull.

“I didn’t buy property next to public hunting land,” he said. “I bought property next to a nature preserve.”

He and another Oak Openings area resident, Amy Grohowski, are incensed the park district did not at least disclose its plans in advance at a public forum. The park did that five years ago at the Oak Openings lodge before removing many nonnative and old-growth trees as part of a cleanup in response to destruction caused by June 5, 2010, tornadoes.

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“It’s ridiculous they’re doing this,” Ms. Grohowski said.

Tim Schetter, the Metroparks’ natural resources director, and Scott Carpenter, the park district’s spokesman, presented a Nov. 6 management plan and permit application attributing many biological problems arising at Oak Openings and Wildwood to excessive deer.

Those two parks “harbor the greatest concentration of rare species and biological communities in the park district and there is a growing body of evidence within these parks documenting significant negative ecological impacts associated with deer overabundance,” the report states.

They said there is no concerted effort to get killings completed before the board meeting. 

The park district said it will not release kill numbers until the campaign ends.

This is the third statewide archery season the park district is allowing bow hunters to remove deer from remote areas of the Oak Openings Corridor, which runs from Secor Metropark to the Oak Openings park.

Ohio’s statewide archery hunt, which began in late September, continues through Feb. 7.

The report said 22 and 19 deer were killed by archers during the first two seasons, respectively. Archers were allowed to hunt on Metroparks land.

The firearms cull and bow hunting are limited to areas beyond those open to visitors. Deer are killed after parks close.

A combined total of 200 deer can be removed under an agreement the park district arranged with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.

The majority are expected to come from Oak Openings because of its size, Mr. Carpenter said. Oak Openings is 4,180 acres, larger than the other Metroparks district parks combined.

Mr. Leth contests the population estimates. He claims anything other than an expensive aerial infrared camera survey done in 2009 is likely not accurate.

The park district has been relying on aerial visual counts via helicopter in recent years, often when three inches or more of snow are present to make it easier to see deer.

Park officials have been counting deer, not deer beds as Mr. Leth contends. And while the latter method is less expensive, it is just as accurate, according to Mr. Schetter.

“He’s wrong,” Mr. Schetter said. “We’ve been monitoring since 2009. Those numbers consistently show there are too many to be sustainable.”

According to the permit application, Oak Openings Preserve has 136 to 232 more deer than it can support, while Wildwood has 28 to 51 too many.

“I just think their count is far off,” Mr. Leth said. “The deer aren’t there. The numbers have dropped.”

Contact Tom Henry at: thenry@theblade.com, 419-724-6079, or via Twitter @ecowriterohio.

First Published January 12, 2016, 5:00 a.m.

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A deer walks along in the brush next to a trail in Wildwood Metropark. Sharpshooters have killed an undisclosed number of deer inside Oak Openings Preserve Metropark and Wildwood Preserve Metropark since the first week of January.  (THE BLADE)  Buy Image
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