Submitted photo This photo from the 2022 Deer Damage Photo Log on the Mill Creek MetroParks website shows lack of vegetation in Huntington Woods in Boardman, one of the Mill Creek MetroParks.

The Mill Creek MetroParks has asked the Ohio Department of Natural Resources for permission to reduce the population of deer in the area of the Mill Creek Golf Course by 100 this year.

The new Mill Creek MetroParks Natural Resources Manager, Rachel Sobnosky, replied to a Vindicator email asking for a copy of any request the MetroParks has made to ODNR for deer reductions by sharpshooters in Mill Creek Park in Boardman.

She said she cannot provide documents this year as in the past because the ODNR has switched to an electronic Office Forms system.

“However, I can confirm that our request, submitted Sept 10, 2025, was for the removal of 100 deer,” she stated.

In early October 2024, the ODNR approved the MetroParks’ request to reduce the deer population through use of USDA sharpshooters in Mill Creek Park south of Youngstown by 75. The MetroParks reduced the deer population by 38 the year before that — the first year of the park system’s deer reduction program. That led to the formation of a group called Save the Deer of Mill Creek Park, which filed legal action and a petition effort in a failed attempt to stop the reductions.

DEER REDUCTIONS SUNDAY

Sobnosky also confirmed that Sunday will be the first day of the part of the deer reduction program that involves hunters obtaining permission through the ODNR white-tailed deer lottery system to begin hunting during allotted times in various Mill Creek MetroParks properties. That part of the program does not include Mill Creek Park. Sunday is the start of the “archery hunting program,” Sobnosky said.

The start of this year’s Mill Creek Park reductions corresponds with the start of Ohio’s statewide white-tailed deer archery hunting season, according to the ODNR Division of Wildlife. Ohio’s archery season is open Saturday through Feb. 1, 2026.

PREVIOUS REDUCTIONS

Last year, the Mill Creek MetroParks deer reduction program eliminated 211 deer on various Mill Creek MetroParks properties. That number combines hunting by individuals signing up through the ODNR white-tailed deer hunting lottery system and “targeted” killing of deer by USDA sharpshooters in the area of the Mill Creek Golf Course, as has been done during the two previous years.

The MetroParks initially thought 236 had been killed during last year’s program, but park officials discovered the number was 25 too high during its annual review of the hunting results. Previous natural resources manager Nick Derico said reasons why the data initially was wrong were that hunters incorrectly reported results, such as hunting on Mill Creek MetroParks properties when they were not.

Derico said the results are corrected after MetroParks and ODNR staff contact each hunter to confirm where the deer was killed.

The MetroParks reported that 204 deer were killed the first year of the program, totaling 415 since the program started in the fall of 2023. The hunting part of the program through the ODNR lottery takes place in nine parks, according to previous Vindicator reporting: Collier Preserve, MetroParks Farm (archery only), Sawmill Creek Preserve, Mill Creek Wildlife Sanctuary, Springfield Forest, Hawkins Marsh, Vickers Nature Preserve, Huntington Woods (archery only) and Hitchcock Woods (archery only).

ODNR

The Vindicator contacted ODNR Assistant Wildlife Manager Geoff Westerfield to ask him for a copy of the MetroParks deer reduction request for this year, and he confirmed that he “did transition to an online submission form” but added that “all the form really asked for is the number (of reductions) they were requesting and the date they planned to start.”

He provided the MetroParks’ responses to the form, which were that the MetroParks plans to begin the sharpshooter reductions Oct. 20 and plans to carry them out in the area of the Mill Creek Golf Course. Another piece of information the MetroParks provided was that the “ecological assessment” of the area where the reductions are planned — the golf course — is “severe.”

The form also asked if the park system “planned to manage deer with fertility control this year.” Mill Creek MetroParks answered “No.”

Westerfield said he would give the Mill Creek MetroParks his answer on how many deer the MetroParks can remove this year through USDA sharpshooters by about the end of the coming week.

SUPPLEMENTAL INFORMATION

Sobnosky stated by email that the other information she provided to the ODNR by email was Appendix B and Appendix D of the MetroParks’ White-tailed Deer Management Plan. Those documents also are posted on the MetroParks’ website under a section called “SUPPORTING DOCUMENTS” and then a pull-down menu called “APPENDICES.”

The first document (Appendix B) is the results of the trail camera survey of the MetroParks deer population carried out last summer and the results from earlier years. The second document (Appendix D) is the newest ecological survey assessment of “Forest Regeneration in Mill Creek Park, Huntington Woods and Hitchcock Wood.” That document also contains the assessments from earlier years.

Sobnosky has worked for the Mill Creek MetroParks since June 2024 and worked in areas such as ecological restoration and wildlife programs, according to her Linked-In profile. She earned her bachelor’s degree from Youngstown State University in biology and biological sciences in 2023 and also is a commercial pesticide applicator and holds an FAA remote pilot certificate.

She replaced Derico, who was natural resources manager 3 1/2 years through July and was natural resources steward at the MetroParks close to four years before that.

DEER DENSITIES

The deer density trail camera survey appears to have followed the same methodology as the 2024 survey — a 14-day period over the summer during which trail cameras were programmed to take pictures 24 hours per day but only once every 5 minutes, taking two photo bursts at a time with a 3-second delay between the first and second photo.

This year’s results showed a deer density per square mile of 111, which is nearly identical to last year’s survey number of 110. In both cases, the surveyed area was 1,436 acres, or 2.24 square miles. The figure was 126 deer per square mile in 2023. There appears not to have been a total deer-per-square-mile figure given in 2022, only a figure for Mill Creek Wildlife Sanctuary (122 deer per square mile) and Hitchcock Woods (231 deer per square mile).

An example of the data the survey generated was that this year it found 48 “unique bucks,” compared with 42 last year, meaning the number of male deer the camera photographed, not counting each male deer multiple times. This year, the trail camera captured 1,748 photos of male deer but 48 “unique bucks.”

The survey results reported equipment malfunctions during this summer’s trail camera survey at several locations that “negatively impacted the total number of pictures collected” and presumably affected the results.

ECOLOGICAL SURVEY

The ecological survey appendix describes the 1-acre survey plots “throughout Mill Creek Park, Huntington Woods and Hitchcock Woods” where “five microplots were established” in a “6-foot radius circle.”

The purpose of the plots is to assess “forest regeneration” through analysis of various types of “woody vegetation” in areas impacted by deer feeding.

For comparison purposes, the MetroParks also has a “control” section, a deer “exclosure” in Hitchcock Woods where deer cannot access the vegetation. It was constructed in 2000 but was not “fully functional until 2018,” the report states.

“The results show that overwhelmingly the (under 6-inch size plants) is the most abundant in areas unprotected from deer browsing. Overall, 69.3% of all native woody stems surveyed were less than 6 inches in height. In general the largest size classes (3 feet to 5 feet and over 5 feet) were largely absent from the unprotected survey areas and accounted for only 1.3% of the total stems surveyed.”

It added that “On the contrary, in the Hitchcock Woods deer exclosure, all size classes were well represented, with the 1-foot to 3-foot size class being most abundant (38.8%).”

A section at the end of the report states that “white-tailed deer herbivory (feeding on plants) continues to be the primary opponent of forest regeneration in Mill Creek Park, Huntington Woods and Hitchcock Woods. This is evidenced by the intensive browse pressure and overall lack of preferred browse species evidenced by this study and other anecdotal references.”

The “recommendation” at the end is continued “white-tailed deer population reduction and management,” plus “native species planting, invasive species management, habitat manipulation where appropriate” and “deer exclusion via fencing and or tree tubes / caging where appropriate.”