Bow hunters take aim at Mill Creek deer

Pending legal action doesn’t deter park system’s plans

YOUNGSTOWN -- Hunters using bows and arrows started to hunt deer in "various locations" within Mill Creek MetroParks starting on Sunday as part of the MetroParks deer reduction program, despite ongoing legal action now pending at the Seventh District Court of Appeals.

Aaron Young, Mill Creek MetroParks executive director, confirmed that the hunts began Sunday, as outlined in the 208-page White Tailed Deer Management Plan on the MetroParks website.

Young stated in an email that "Archery hunts at various locations began on Oct. 1" and that the dates of the "targeted removal" by U.S. Department of Agriculture-Employed sharpshooters "have yet to be determined and will be weather dependent."

The plan states that "archery permit periods for selected hunters will be one-week in length, with eight separate permit windows beginning Oct. 1 and continuing into late November. Properties such as Hitchcock Woods and Huntington Woods, which are archery only, will have a total of 16 permit windows which will extend through January."

Another section of the report states that there are 489 "huntable" acres in Hitchcock Woods, and five archery permits will be issued per "window" of time. But since each permit holder can take along another person to hunt, that totals 10 hunters per "window" of time.

Eighty permits were issued for Hitchcock Woods, so up to 160 hunters are likely to hunt those woods. They are expected to have a "success rate" of 20 percent of the hunters for a total of 16 to 32 deer harvested through January, according to the plan.

Mickey Drabison, a lead organizer of the Save the Deer of Mill Creek Park organization, said Monday that hunts began Sunday in Hitchcock and Huntington Woods, both south of U.S. Route 224 in Boardman.

Katie Gray, who lives adjacent to Hitchcock Woods, said she's sad to hear that hunters are in Hitchcock Woods. "They are my backyard pets," she said of the deer. "It's upsetting."

She said she saw the sign stating that a controlled archery hunt is in progress in Hitchcock Woods when she entered the trail with her dog, Luna. "And it kind of makes me want to walk here to disturb the deer to make them run, so they don't just hang out and be bait. It's just sad," she said of the hunting.

Gray said she assumes that since the woods are still open to the public, and the woods are so large, the hunters are probably staying in areas distant from the walking trails where she was.

She said she saw two men dressed in black in her back yard a few days ago before the hunting began, and she did not like it. She's assuming they were hunters getting familiar with the woods. "That's my property. I own that. I don't want you hunting," she said. She added, however, that it's hard for hunters to know where the property lines are.

Magistrate Nicole Alexander of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court on Friday denied a request for a preliminary injunction against the deer reduction plan filed by four people who live near MetroParks properties. It was part of the legal action they filed recently asking that the court rule that the MetroParks does not have the legal authority to carry out the program.

The magistrate ruled that based on filings by the four plaintiffs and the MetroParks and evidence heard at a hearing Thursday, the plaintiffs had "not shown a substantial likelihood of success on the merits (of their lawsuiy that) would warrant the issuance" of a preliminary injunction.

On Friday, the same day Alexander ruled against stopping the hunts from starting, the attorney for the four residents filed an appeal of the decision with the appeals court.

It contained an "emergency motion" asking the appeals court judges to stop the deer reduction program before the hunts started. However, as of Monday night, the appeals court had not ruled on that motion.

The MetroParks filed a response to the motion, however, stating that Alexander notified the four residents that they had 14 days from the date of the ruling to file write objections to the ruling to Alexander's boss, Mahoning County Common Pleas Court Judge Anthony Donofrio.

The filing asks the appeals court to dismiss the appeal.