The Ohio Department of Natural Resources is permitting Mill Creek MetroParks to have 50 deer killed in the area near its Boardman golf course — not the 100 it requested.

The MetroParks asked the agency Sept. 10 for permission to use sharpshooters to reduce the deer population by 100.

Geoffrey Westerfield, ODNR’s assistant wildlife management supervisor, wrote in a Wednesday email to Rachel Sobnosky, the MetroParks’ natural resource manager, that the permit is 50 deer “after a considerable amount of time assessing your request, an assessment of both the data you submitted with your request along with data from previous years, the multiple site visits I have made to Mill Creek Park over the last month and the conversations we have had recently.”

Westerfield wrote: “I am always open to discussion of an increase in the number of deer permitted. If you are close to fulfilling the initial 50 deer and request an increase, I will reassess the situation to determine if additional deer are warranted at that time.”

Sobnosky declined Friday to comment on ODNR’s decision, except to say, “We are looking forward to another successful year of the program.”

Westerfield wrote he was reiterating what is stated on the permit about the kills “only valid in park areas where deer management is allowed and does not supersede any local ordinances.”

Youngstown officials in April 2023 said the planned deer reduction through shooting or bow hunting would violate city ordinances. That came shortly after MetroParks’ board agreed to reduce the deer population through those methods.

In October 2024, the ODNR approved the MetroParks’ request to reduce the deer population through the use of U.S. Department of Agriculture sharpshooters in Mill Creek Park in Boardman by 75. Overall, 211 deer on various MetroParks’ properties were killed through the ODNR white-tailed deer hunting lottery system and “targeted” killing of deer by sharpshooters in the area of the golf course.

The MetroParks reduced the deer population by 38 by the golf course in 2023, the first year of the program. Overall in 2023, 204 deer were killed, including through the ODNR lottery, in nine parks: Collier Preserve, Sawmill Creek Preserve, Mill Creek Wildlife Sanctuary, Springfield Forest, Hawkins Marsh, Vickers Nature Preserve, MetroParks Farm, Huntington Woods and Hitchcock Woods. The latter three were archery only.

The latest ODNR permit is retroactive to Wednesday and good until March 31, 2026. The sharpshooters in the area of the Mill Creek Golf Course will begin the reduction Oct. 20, Westerfield previously said.

Save the Deer of Mill Creek Park, which opposes the kills, filed legal action and a petition in a failed attempt to stop the reductions.

MetroParks officials said the reduction program addresses the deer overpopulation problem in the park.