YOUNGSTOWN — The Mill Creek MetroParks Board of Trustees has asked the Ohio Department of Natural Resources to double the number of deer that can be eliminated from Mill Creek Park in Boardman this year by U.S. Department of Agriculture sharpshooters to 75.

Nick Derico, natural resources manager for the MetroParks, filed a deer management request with Geoff Westerfield, assistant wildlife management supervisor of ODNR, on Sept. 6, asking for permission for sharpshooters to remove 75 deer from Oct. 7 to March 31, between U.S. Route 224 and Midlothian Boulevard.

Sharpshooters removed 38 deer in last year’s program using sharpshooters in that same area. Another 166 deer were killed by hunters using the ODNR lottery system during the regular hunting season on various MetroParks properties.

The hunting part of the program is set to start Sunday, the first Sunday of the statewide deer archery season. Westerfield said in June there will be no change in the way the hunting part of the reduction is carried out this year compared to last year.

The number of deer killed in the MetroParks last year was 204, combining sharpshooting and hunting. It was the first year for the program and was met with extreme opposition at MetroParks meetings and in the form of a lawsuit in the common pleas court seeking to stop the reductions and a petition in Mahoning County Probate Court to remove the MetroPark commissioners. The second matter is awaiting a decision by a visiting judge.

As part of Derico’s proposal, he noted that the removed deer will be sent to Keller Meats of Lichfield, Ohio, for processing, and the meat will be given to Second Harvest Food Bank of the Mahoning Valley for distribution. The document is available on the MetroParks website.

A cover letter states that the MetroParks may also request additional permits for deer reductions by USDA sharpshooters “based on need, staff availability and budget. Future permit requests may also include additional properties, such as Huntington Woods and / or Hitchcock Woods based on the results of the controlled hunting program (hunting through the ODNR lottery) that will be taking place at these locations.”

Most of the 16 pages of the permit request are the “Assessment of Forest Regeneration in Mill Creek Park, Huntington Woods and Hitchcock Woods” dated June 2024. It details new studies carried out on the vegetation in the three parks meant to measure how much reductions in deer are affecting the regrowth of the vegetation.

It defines “forest regeneration” as the “process that allows a forest to replace and sustain itself in the long-term through the establishment and survival of seedlings and saplings that replace mature canopy trees as they die, either by natural causes or by large disturbance events such as windstorms, wildfire or disease.”

Derico said the results show “slight improvement (in vegetation) as compared to 2023.” He said the “most notable change was at Huntington Woods, which improved from an average “score” of 2.74 to 5.56. Mill Creek Park showed a slight decrease from 15.3 to 14.79, and Hitchcock Woods remained constant at 21.3.

“We also saw some small improvements in the size of oak seedlings observed throughout the study area,” he said. “While we observed less overall oak seedlings in 2024, the number of stems in the 6-12″ and 1-3′ size class were higher than in 2023.”

The MetroParks has indicated that a key reason for reducing the number of deer in the MetroParks is to restore the vegetation. The assessment notes that white tailed deer feed on a “wide range of woody and herbaceous plant growth,” and they can “negatively influence forest regeneration when populations exceed ecological carrying capacity.

“In the case of Mill Creek MetroParks, the ecological effects of white tailed deer overabundance, such as distinct browse lines, stunted forest regeneration and low species diversity have been anecdotally noted in some areas for over two decades. However, the effects of over browsing had not previously been quantified prior to 2023,” the document adds.

In order to quantify the vegetative damage to the MetroParks, its staff created “survey plots,” one acre in size throughout Mill Creek Park, Huntington Woods and Hitchcock Woods. Within each plot, five “micro plots were established (6 foot radius circle).”

For purposes of assessing forest regeneration, all woody vegetation less than 4.5 inches was identified and categorized based on size class. Woody vegetation was separated into five class sizes. Photos were taken. To provide a “control” group, data also was collected from an 18-foot-by 18-foot deer exclosure, which keeps wildlife out, in Hitchcock Woods.

The results from 110 micro plots in Mill Creek Park, Huntington Woods and Hitchcock Woods were that the 6-inch class size was the most abundant “in areas unprotected from deer browsing, and 75.5 percent of all native woody stems surveyed were less than 6 inches in height. In general, the larger sizes (3-foot to 5-foot and 5-foot and over) “were largely absent from unprotected survey areas and accounted for only 1.4 percent of the total stems surveyed,” the report states.

By contrast, in Hitchcock Woods deer exclosure, “all sizes were well represented, with the 1-foot to 3-foot class size class being most abundant (42.9 percent),” the assessment states.

Derico said that despite seeing some improvement in the vegetation after the first year of deer reduction, “we have a long way to go.” He said “Forest regeneration is a slow and gradual process, it will take several years to see the type of improvement we are striving for, but it is encouraging to see the needle move ever so slightly in the right direction.”