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YOUNGSTOWN — After two weeks of hunting and sharpshooting in Mill Creek MetroParks, the number of deer harvested has reached 94, including 64 by hunters selected through an Ohio Department of Natural Resources lottery and 30 by U.S. Department of Agriculture-employed sharpshooters.

The numbers are part of the MetroParks’ deer reduction program, which began Oct. 1, after a magistrate in Mahoning Common Pleas Court refused to grant a preliminary injunction to halt it.

The program has been met with opposition by the Save the Deer of Mill Creek Park organization. Four people who live near the parks also sued the MetroParks in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court, asking that Magistrate Nicole Alexander find that the park district used a flawed method of counting the number of deer in its deer-reduction plan.

METROPARKS

Nick Derico, natural resources manager for the MetroParks, stated Monday that the number of deer killed by hunters the week of Oct. 1 to 7 was 26. The number last week — Oct. 8 through 14 — was 38 for a total of 64. Derico earlier reported that the number of deer killed Oct. 1 through Oct. 8 was 38, but Oct. 8 was a Sunday, so he is counting those as being part of last week’s numbers, Derico explained in an email.

The 64 is in addition to the 30 killed late Wednesday into Thursday by USDA sharpshooters on the MetroParks Golf Course just north of U.S. Route 224 in Boardman.

The 30 were killed in a phase called targeted deer removal, which was chosen for parts of Mill Creek Park south of Midlothian Boulevard. At the time of the targeted nighttime deer removals, public access was closed to the East Golf Hike and Bike Trail, Derico said.

The Ohio Department of Natural Resource granted a permit to the MetroParks to use that type of targeted deer removal to kill 30 deer. That night’s deer removal ended that type of deer removal for now, said Geoff Westerfield, assistant wildlife manager supervisor for the ODNR Division of Wildlife.

Westerfield said in September that 30 deer was a starting point because, if during the removal process it becomes apparent more deer should be removed, the number could be increased.

“At this point, we set it at 30, and that’s what we are working off of out of the gate,” he said.

Westerfield said Monday the sharpshooters “removed the 30 permitted deer in one night,” and it took “just under three hours, so it was a quick removal due to the number of deer that were in the park when compared to many of the other deer removal programs,” he said.

He said all of the deer removed were antlerless, but he will not know the exact breakdown of males to females until he gets the USDA’s “end-of-season removal report,” which is provided by May 1. One of the deer killed was a “button buck,” meaning a deer whose antlers have not protruded through the deer’s skin.

Westerfield said the sharpshooters purposely “passed” on harvesting “a bunch” of antlered deer, “but right now they are simply evaluating the situation in that area to assess the number of deer” there.

Another evaluation will be done regarding Mill Creek MetroParks where hunting for deer is ongoing “to evaluate the number of deer removed by hunters in each of the parks and (decide whether) any additional deer need to be removed from any of the hunted parks,” Westerfield stated.

PENDING LAWSUIT

The pending lawsuit in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court has no hearing dates scheduled yet.

Attorney Marc Dann, who represents the four plaintiffs in the deer lawsuit, filed an appeal with the 7th District Court of Appeals on Sept. 29 regarding Alexander’s refusal to grant the preliminary injunction, but the parties last week agreed to dismiss that appeal.

Dann told The Vindicator on Monday the reason for requesting that dismissal was because the 7th District court did not “step in” to grant an emergency ruling that would have stopped the deer-reduction program.

When the appeals panel did not act, he felt it prudent to seek dismissal of that appeal so the case could resume in the common pleas court.

On the day Dann agreed to dismiss the 7th District appeal, he filed objections to the magistrate’s ruling with Mahoning County Common Pleas Court Judge Anthony Donofrio, for whom Alexander works.

It asks Donofrio to “set aside the magistrate’s decision and grant (his clients’) motion for preliminary injection to maintain the status quo” and stop the deer reduction program until his clients’ lawsuit is fully heard.

The filing asks Donofrio to “stop the harm caused by defendant Mill Creek Metropolitan Park District’s plan to exceed its legal authority and eradicate white tail deer in public park parcels.”