Submitted photo ... The deer reduction program in Mill Creek MetroParks generated much controversy and many headlines in 2023.

YOUNGSTOWN — The Mill Creek MetroParks revealed in February it wanted to reduce the number of deer in its parks, saying surveys indicated there were 387 white-tailed deer per square mile, 19 times higher than the “carrying capacity of the land.”

Park officials said they had not decided yet whether to carry out a deer reduction plan, but expected to decide at a March 13 MetroParks Board meeting.

Opposition to the idea mounted quickly, with Mickey Drabison, who lives on the edge of Mill Creek Park, coming to the forefront, organizing walks through the park to challenge the park’s numbers, which came from an aerial flyover using infrared imaging.

Monthly meetings also were organized for the Save the Deer of Mill Creek Park group. At times, 100 people attended, where attorneys, including former Ohio attorney general Marc Dann and then-Youngstown Law Director Jeff Limbian, spoke about legal options to stop the plan if it went through.

Dann later filed suit on behalf of four property owners living near the parks, but the suit was not successful in stopping the plan from being implemented Oct. 1, just days after a hearing before a Mahoning County magistrate and her decision to allow the deer reductions to begin.

Since Oct. 1, nearly 200 deer have been killed, harvested, removed, slaughtered, taken or eliminated, depending on what word best suits a person’s feelings about the issue.

The daylong hearing in common pleas court presented witnesses who discussed their feelings about the methods of the deer reduction plan and their opinions of whether it was necessary and being done correctly.

For instance, a woman said she would no longer be able to allow her children to play in her backyard because she is concerned about hunters being a short distance away, possibly not knowing where the park’s boundaries are and possibly shooting into areas where children might be playing.

Denny Malloy, a Trumbull County commissioner and a regional director of Whitetails Unlimited, testified part of the plan was unethical. He argued that removing deer in highly populated areas of Mill Creek Park, such as in Boardman, with U.S. Department of Agriculture employed sharpshooters was “legalized government poaching.”

The issue was so contentious that in April when the MetroParks Board approved the plan, the large room at the MetroParks Farm was full, with people holding signs, security officers waiting in the wings and opponents yelling toward the three board members who attended.

The at-times-chaotic scene involved confusion and frustration experienced by people on both sides.

About 20 minutes into the meeting, Lee Frey, MetroParks chairman, became frustrated with the unruly comments from the crowd. “Quit talking out. You’ll get your chance,” he said. “All right, we’ll just vote,” he said moments later.

Frey and board member Tom Frost gave remarks, with Frey saying the number of deer has “reached a critical level.” The park system’s natural resources manager, Nick Derico, had explained earlier that the high number of deer was destroying the park’s vegetation.

After the vote was taken to approve the deer reduction, Frey said citizens who had signed up were allowed to speak, but many asked what the point was since the board already had voted.

Dozens of citizens spoke nonetheless, each getting three minutes, some of whom did not realize that the vote already had been taken.

In late September, Geoff Westerfield, assistant wildlife manager for the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Division of Wildlife, approved a permit for sharpshooters to remove 30 deer from Mill Creek Park. That was done Oct. 11 on the Mill Creek Golf Course just north of U.S. Route 224 in Boardman. It took three hours for the sharpshooters to reach their limit.

He called it 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 has seen.

Westerfield later approved a permit for sharpshooters to remove an additional 14 deer in the area from Route 224 north to Shields Road. The total number removed was eight because of restrictions Westerfield placed on the number of doe that could be taken.

Westerfield said it would be the last time this season through March 31 that sharpshooters would be used to reduce the deer population in the Mill Creek MetroParks.

Before granting that permit, Westerfield made a personal visit to the park and reported on his observations of the deer and made a surprising attempt to calculate the deer density he observed, estimating the total was 47 deer per square mile, which he said was “still substantially higher than what is typically tolerable for positive vegetative growth in a forest.”

He also gave the opinion that the area of Mill Creek Park from Shields Road to U.S. 224 had 80 deer per square mile before the Oct. 11 removals.

Derico later said the 387 deer per square mile found in the aerial infrared imaging and the 80 deer per square mile Westerfield found were “not comparable.”

He said any type of survey is “simply a snapshot in time and can only be considered accurate at that time under those conditions. To compare the results of the infrared aerial survey to the observations of one person during one site visit three years later and under a different time of year/weather conditions is totally inappropriate. One does not prove or disprove the other.”

None of the deer reductions have taken place in the parts of Mill Creek Park in Youngstown because the city has an ordinance that makes it illegal to discharge firearms within the city limits.

The litigation filed by Dann continues. Magistrate Nicole Butler held a telephone conference with the parties last week to discuss the status of the case. It was decided to wait until all filings have been completed on motions for summary judgment by both sides before proceeding with a dismissal or setting it for trial.

Meanwhile, State Rep. Lauren McNally, a Democrat from Youngstown, sponsored a bill she said is intended to make the Mill Creek MetroParks board more accountable to the public by requiring that four of the five members be elected officials.

One each would come from the city council of the largest city, the board of trustees of the largest township, the council of the largest village and a member of the board of county commissioners. The fifth member would not have to have any elected position.

Under current population totals, the board members would come from Youngstown City Council, Boardman Township and Sebring Village, in addition to a Mahoning County commissioner.

McNally said the legislation, as written, would apply only to the Mill Creek MetroParks, but it can be modified in the legislative process and could apply to more park districts in Ohio.

She said attorneys with the nonpartisan Legislative Service Commission recommended that it be written with a “narrow scope” that would only affect the Mill Creek MetroParks “as a starting point. When it goes to committee, and I get testimony for the first time, that is always the starting point. That is where the discussion happens with amendments, expansions, and things change. That is where the general public has the opportunity to come in and speak in favor of it, against it.”

McNally said she decided to sponsor the legislation after receiving complaints from people on various issues associated with the MetroParks. She said complaints to her regarding the deer reduction program were “the straw that broke the camel’s back for me and my office. Since I took office, I have had to dedicate a lot of office resources to dealing with complaints about Mill Creek Park, and the deer issue is sort of like the last one. There is no way I should be getting this many phone calls about these many issues with Mill Creek Park.”

The bill is in the Ohio House State and Local Government Committee.

erunyan@vindy.com