The next Regular Meeting of the Board of Park Commissioners, of Mill Creek MetroParks is scheduled for Monday, March 13, 2023, at 6:00 p.m., in the Education Building – McMahon Hall, at the MetroParks Farm, on Rt. 46, in Canfield. The agenda will be available on the website after 2:00 p.m. on the day of the meeting.
https://www.millcreekmetroparks.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/mcmp-header.png00Mill Creek MetroParks Staffhttps://www.millcreekmetroparks.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/mcmp-header.pngMill Creek MetroParks Staff2023-03-10 09:35:162023-03-10 09:35:26Notice of March Board Meeting
Mill Creek MetroParks has completed a survey of the deer population in Mill Creek Park and its other properties and has found that it is 19 times higher than the “carrying capacity of the land.”
Nick Derico, MetroParks natural resources manager, said having an average of 387 white-tailed deer per square mile in the park system, including 355 per square mile in Mill Creek Park, indicates “a very serious problem.”
Derico said the recommended density of white-tailed deer is 10 to 20 deer per square mile.
“We have too many deer in relation to available MetroParks property in terms of habitat,” he said.
Derico talked with the MetroParks board and public about the matter Feb. 13, and it will be discussed again March 13, when Derico will make recommendations to the park board on what to do.
In the meantime, the public is encouraged to provide its input on the issue at the www.millcreekmetroparks.org/white-tailed-deer-in-mill-creek-metroparks page on the MetroParks website.
Derico said overpopulation of deer has “significant negative impacts to both the health of the deer population and the ecological biodiversity of the land as well as increased human conflicts,” such as coming into contact with motor vehicles.
A key part of data collection was an aerial, infrared survey carried out at night from an airplane Jan. 21, 2022, in Mill Creek Park and Jan. 26, 2022, in the rest of the MetroParks’ facilities.
The MetroParks has published the results in detail, including specific information on Mill Creek Park — from Fellows Riverside Gardens south to U.S. Route 224 in Boardman. It also includes specific results for the Hitchcock Woods and Huntington Woods areas south of Route 224, and 12 other MetroParks properties throughout the county.
The results show that the highest densities are in the Huntington Woods just south of Route 224 at 592 deer per square mile, Yellow Creek at 674 deer per square mile, Sebring Woods at 607 deer per square mile, Sawmill Creek at 540 deer per square mile and Cranberry Run headwaters at 450 deer per square mile.
Derico said no decision has been made on what to do about the high numbers of deer, but MetroParks officials are discussing that with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, which is “the managing authority for wildlife in the state.”
ODNR has indicated options for reducing the deer population include allowing hunters to reduce the population or another type of “targeted removal beyond hunting.”
THE WHITE DEER
Aaron Young, MetroParks executive director, said whatever decision is reached, he does not anticipate any herd-reducing activities to affect the three white deer that have been identified in Mill Creek Park, two females and a male.
Derico said two conditions can cause either a full or partial lack of pigment in white-tail deer. One is albinism, in which a deer has an all-white coat, white or see-through hooves, an all-pink nose and pink or pale blue eyes.
He said the three white deer in Mill Creek Park can be described that way.
The second condition is what are called leucistic deer, which have a “partial loss of pigment. They can have an all-white coat, but they commonly retain some level of normal pigmentation in their hooves, noses or in their eyes,” Derico said.
“They would be white deer with normal looking brown eyes,” he said. “That is not the case we are seeing.”
But without genetic testing, which the MetroParks has not done, the park system cannot say for sure whether Mill Creek Park’s white deer are albino, Derico said.
Both types of white deer have “recessive genes and should be very rare” and indicate a problem with the deer population, Derico said.
“The frequency with which that recessive gene is being seen in our herd points to poor genetic diversity, which is caused by inbreeding over time.” It is not an indication that the white deer in the park are unhealthy, Derico said.
The typical prevalence of white deer in a herd is 1 in 20,000 to 1 in 30,000 deer, but for Mill Creek Park to have three of them in a population of about 903 suggests poor genetic diversity, Derico said.
The survey indicated 2,935 deer roamed the MetroParks in January 2022.
Derico said overpopulation of deer in the park is “not necessarily” to blame for possible poor genetic diversity. “It’s more showing there may not be a lot of immigration or emigration in the population at the north end of the park.”
He said, “As the population grows and there is no new genetic material coming into the population, inbreeding is taking place and these rare recessive genes are being seen more frequently.”
Derico has a bachelor’s degree in wildlife and fisheries science from the former California University of Pennsylvania, now known as Pennsylvania Western University, in California, Pa., south of Pittsburgh.
He said the point is that the “frequency of these rare genetic conditions is concerning in terms of genetic diversity.”
He said the park has had “numerous” white deer over the years and generally has had one or two born each spring.
Young said a concern is that with the lack of genetic diversity in the north part of Mill Creek Park, inbreeding may be affecting the health of the deer. “Inbreeding over time can cause other genetic issues,” Derico said. Among them are chronic wasting disease, epizootic hemorrhage disease, Lyme disease and other tick-born pathogens, according to a MetroParks presentation.
Jamey Emmert, spokeswoman for the Ohio Division of Wildlife, told this newspaper last summer that “White deer are a product of a recessive gene in both the mother’s and father’s DNA, which result in white offspring. This recessive genetic trait is found in about 1 percent of all white-tail deer.”
ECOLOGICAL DAMAGE
But other factors suggest overpopulation of deer in MetroParks properties, Derico said.
A big one is the ecological damage to plants. Deer feed on a variety of woody and herbaceous plants but have preferred species they like to eat, like spring wildflowers, Derico said.
“When deer are overabundant, they gravitate toward those preferred species and disproportionately impact those species, effectively removing them from the landscape,” Derico said. “Oftentimes what are left are plants that are unpalatable to deer.”
It leads to a high prevalence of invasive species, he said. Overpopulation of deer also leads to a “browse line” where the deer have eaten the vegetation from about 5 feet down.
“They can strip the forest understory of growth,” Derico said. “As sapling trees begin to grow, they get browsed to the ground and killed immediately, so there is no intermediate story of succession coming up through our forest right now. So we are missing an entire generation of forest growth right now due to deer browsing.”
The MetroParks has been experimenting in Hitchcock Woods for five years with a deer-proof enclosure to show what the park would look like if deer were not able to browse.
“We’re seeing ecological damage throughout all of our properties,” he said. “As the MetroParks, we’re stewards of the land. It’s our responsibility to manage these properties in the best interest of all species to promote biodiversity and encourage native species.”
He said deer overbrowsing is a problem throughout the nation, “so many people think that is completely normal and they just don’t realize what it really should be like.”
When plant life is negatively affected, it “affects a multitude of other species, mammals, birds, infections, amphibians … because they’re missing habitat,” Derico said. A bird called the wood thrush used to nest in the MetroParks, but they don’t anymore “because their habitat is gone,” he said. “That’s just one example.”
When Derico was asked about the point of view some people may have that enjoying the deer is the most important thing, Derico said “It’s our job … to protect these parcels and it’s important now for future generations. What will happen to future generations if there is no forest succession?” Derico said.
https://www.millcreekmetroparks.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/mcmp-header.png00Mill Creek MetroParks Staffhttps://www.millcreekmetroparks.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/mcmp-header.pngMill Creek MetroParks Staff2023-02-27 08:45:552023-03-10 09:33:20Data on Mill Creek Park deer under fire
Mill Creek MetroParks’ deer numbers are wrong, Mickey Drabison of Youngstown said.
He led a group of people on a walk in Mill Creek Park on Feb. 19 to look at the deer population after they heard MetroParks officials talk about overpopulation of deer. The group plans another walk today.
He said the reason for the walks is to show people and let them decide for themselves whether the deer are overpopulating. He said he believes the number the MetroParks has given — 387 per square mile — is not accurate.
He thinks the number is much less.
The group will be back out again today from 10 a.m. to noon for another look starting near the parking areas across from the Mill Creek Golf course, which is on West Golf Drive.
The group previously walked north of the golf course near the Morley Pavilion and the Lily Pond and did not see deer, but Drabison said the area near the golf course has more. He said the area where the group walked Feb. 19 generally has two herds of five deer each. “And another group of six that come up and do their eating.”
He was surprised his group did not see any deer, but noted dogs do scare them off.
Drabison, who lives close to the park, said he has walked nearly every day in the park for the past 10 years. He said he typically sees about 15 or 20 deer in a few herds.
“I follow the white deer,” he said. A white deer named Faith is in that area, he said.
He said 387 deer in a square mile “comes down to 10 herds of 38 deer per square mile. I’ve never seen deer like that in this place. There are deer, but their number is not quite right, in my opinion,” Drabison said of the MetroParks.
“These people out here see it. I see it,” Drabison said of the real number of deer. He said he does not have personal knowledge of the deer population south of U.S. Route 224.
He said he is familiar with area from McCollum Road to Shields Road and thinks there are maybe 100 deer in that area, which is about 4 miles long.
“I could walk you or draw you a map and show you right where they are at. You could go there and see the deer I am talking about. That’s it,” he said. He thinks more are south of Shields Road near the golf course, where he saw a herd of about 16 deer about a month ago.
“That’s the biggest herd I’ve ever seen there,” Drabison said. “The rest are maybe six or seven walking around together.”
ALBINO OR NOT
Drabison said he disagrees if the MetroParks is saying that the white deer in Mill Creek Park are albino deer. “There is not an albino deer in the park. There hasn’t been,” he said.
A leucistic deer can be all-white coat — but commonly retain some level of normal pigmentation in their hooves, noses or in their eyes.
One named Queenie died in 2021 at Schenley Avenue and Bear’s Den Road. Drabison found the deer after it died. He saw her born — one of 11 deer he has seen born in the park. Her death was related to not being able to birth a calf.
“The deer trust me,” he said.
Queenie was not an albino because she had yellow eyes, Drabison said. She was healthy except for a two-week issue with parasites.
Drabison said he believes the presence of a white deer like Queenie does not indicate any genetic issues that would suggest overpopulation of deer, because he believes white deer are “just like the brown deer” in their health.
He’s heard the argument that vegetation is being destroyed by the deer, but doubts that, too. The only type of damage he hears about or observes, he said, is deer coming into yards and eating flowers.
Drabison said he thinks the MetroParks is making plans to reduce the deer population to get money from allowing hunters to reduce the herd.
COUNTERPOINT
Nick Derico, MetroParks natural resources manager, was asked about Drabison’s opinion about the park district’s data on the number of deer.
A key part of data collection was an aerial, infrared survey carried out at night from an airplane Jan. 21, 2022, in Mill Creek Park and Jan. 26, 2022, in the rest of the park’s facilities.
Derico said the type of survey done for the MetroParks numbers has been “used for years, even the late 1900s,” and in the 2000s the park district did the same type of survey.
He said the surveyor who provided the data “went painstakingly for months, going through the data. Each (thermal) signature gets evaluated based on its size, its shape, its habit, meaning if there is a heat signature in the middle of Lake Newport, that’s not a deer. And then deer do give off a distinctive thermal characteristic based on how heat is reflected off of their coats,” Derico said.
He said the thermal imaging camera “can (or) will pick up more than just deer, but each signature was evaluated on its own merit and determined whether it was consistent with a deer.” He said there is a “confidence interval” of 85 percent, meaning the surveyor is “85 percent or more confident in his results,” Derico said.
He said the snow-covered, cold weather the two nights of the survey were ideal for the survey. The surveyor flew at about 1,100 feet, providing “great survey conditions,” Derico said. “We’re confident in the survey numbers. We don’t know what to tell people who don’t believe them.”
Derico noted that people are allowed to be in the MetroParks only during the day, not at night, and deer “are most active in the evening and at dawn and dusk and throughout the night. They bed during the day, typically.” They do sometimes feed even at mid-day but not typically.
“If you are walking in daylight on a trail, as you should be, there are plenty of areas where deer could be obscured from your vision,” Derico said. The way a person might walk in the park “is certainly not a comprehensive look at all areas of the MetroParks.”
When Derico was asked about Drabison’s theory that the MetroParks would reduce the deer herd to make money off of a hunt, he responded: “Absolutely not. Quite the opposite. There is no financial gain for the MetroParks through any of the methods (of reducing the herd.) In fact, it’s cost the MetroParks to gather this survey data and staff time to look into the issue. There is no financial motivation.”
Aaron Young, MetroParks executive director, said that “to imply that we are only looking at the deer overpopulation because of financial gain is simply inaccurate.” Young said the MetroParks will not decide what method would be used to reduce the herd until it hears the input from the public.
The MetroParks is trying to educate the public on this issue through the web site where the public can provide input at www.millcreekmetroparks.org/white-tailed-deer-in-mill-creek-metroparks, Young said.
“The presentation (Derico) gave at the last meeting (Feb. 13) was the culmination of two years of data collection,” Young said.
The MetroParks wants to create a white-tail deer management plan, which exists in many other park districts in northeast Ohio, Derico said.
The MetroParks board again will discuss the issue March 13. Derico will make recommendations to the park board on what to do.
https://www.millcreekmetroparks.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/mcmp-header.png00Mill Creek MetroParks Staffhttps://www.millcreekmetroparks.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/mcmp-header.pngMill Creek MetroParks Staff2023-02-27 08:43:132023-03-10 09:33:39Deer count is overestimated, wildlife watcher argues
Notice of March Board Meeting
/in Press Releases/by Mill Creek MetroParks StaffThe next Regular Meeting of the Board of Park Commissioners, of Mill Creek MetroParks is scheduled for Monday, March 13, 2023, at 6:00 p.m., in the Education Building – McMahon Hall, at the MetroParks Farm, on Rt. 46, in Canfield. The agenda will be available on the website after 2:00 p.m. on the day of the meeting.
Data on Mill Creek Park deer under fire
/in Media Coverage/by Mill Creek MetroParks StaffMill Creek MetroParks has completed a survey of the deer population in Mill Creek Park and its other properties and has found that it is 19 times higher than the “carrying capacity of the land.”
Nick Derico, MetroParks natural resources manager, said having an average of 387 white-tailed deer per square mile in the park system, including 355 per square mile in Mill Creek Park, indicates “a very serious problem.”
Derico said the recommended density of white-tailed deer is 10 to 20 deer per square mile.
“We have too many deer in relation to available MetroParks property in terms of habitat,” he said.
Derico talked with the MetroParks board and public about the matter Feb. 13, and it will be discussed again March 13, when Derico will make recommendations to the park board on what to do.
In the meantime, the public is encouraged to provide its input on the issue at the www.millcreekmetroparks.org/white-tailed-deer-in-mill-creek-metroparks page on the MetroParks website.
Derico said overpopulation of deer has “significant negative impacts to both the health of the deer population and the ecological biodiversity of the land as well as increased human conflicts,” such as coming into contact with motor vehicles.
A key part of data collection was an aerial, infrared survey carried out at night from an airplane Jan. 21, 2022, in Mill Creek Park and Jan. 26, 2022, in the rest of the MetroParks’ facilities.
The MetroParks has published the results in detail, including specific information on Mill Creek Park — from Fellows Riverside Gardens south to U.S. Route 224 in Boardman. It also includes specific results for the Hitchcock Woods and Huntington Woods areas south of Route 224, and 12 other MetroParks properties throughout the county.
The results show that the highest densities are in the Huntington Woods just south of Route 224 at 592 deer per square mile, Yellow Creek at 674 deer per square mile, Sebring Woods at 607 deer per square mile, Sawmill Creek at 540 deer per square mile and Cranberry Run headwaters at 450 deer per square mile.
Derico said no decision has been made on what to do about the high numbers of deer, but MetroParks officials are discussing that with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, which is “the managing authority for wildlife in the state.”
ODNR has indicated options for reducing the deer population include allowing hunters to reduce the population or another type of “targeted removal beyond hunting.”
THE WHITE DEER
Aaron Young, MetroParks executive director, said whatever decision is reached, he does not anticipate any herd-reducing activities to affect the three white deer that have been identified in Mill Creek Park, two females and a male.
Derico said two conditions can cause either a full or partial lack of pigment in white-tail deer. One is albinism, in which a deer has an all-white coat, white or see-through hooves, an all-pink nose and pink or pale blue eyes.
He said the three white deer in Mill Creek Park can be described that way.
The second condition is what are called leucistic deer, which have a “partial loss of pigment. They can have an all-white coat, but they commonly retain some level of normal pigmentation in their hooves, noses or in their eyes,” Derico said.
“They would be white deer with normal looking brown eyes,” he said. “That is not the case we are seeing.”
But without genetic testing, which the MetroParks has not done, the park system cannot say for sure whether Mill Creek Park’s white deer are albino, Derico said.
Both types of white deer have “recessive genes and should be very rare” and indicate a problem with the deer population, Derico said.
“The frequency with which that recessive gene is being seen in our herd points to poor genetic diversity, which is caused by inbreeding over time.” It is not an indication that the white deer in the park are unhealthy, Derico said.
The typical prevalence of white deer in a herd is 1 in 20,000 to 1 in 30,000 deer, but for Mill Creek Park to have three of them in a population of about 903 suggests poor genetic diversity, Derico said.
The survey indicated 2,935 deer roamed the MetroParks in January 2022.
Derico said overpopulation of deer in the park is “not necessarily” to blame for possible poor genetic diversity. “It’s more showing there may not be a lot of immigration or emigration in the population at the north end of the park.”
He said, “As the population grows and there is no new genetic material coming into the population, inbreeding is taking place and these rare recessive genes are being seen more frequently.”
Derico has a bachelor’s degree in wildlife and fisheries science from the former California University of Pennsylvania, now known as Pennsylvania Western University, in California, Pa., south of Pittsburgh.
He said the point is that the “frequency of these rare genetic conditions is concerning in terms of genetic diversity.”
He said the park has had “numerous” white deer over the years and generally has had one or two born each spring.
Young said a concern is that with the lack of genetic diversity in the north part of Mill Creek Park, inbreeding may be affecting the health of the deer. “Inbreeding over time can cause other genetic issues,” Derico said. Among them are chronic wasting disease, epizootic hemorrhage disease, Lyme disease and other tick-born pathogens, according to a MetroParks presentation.
Jamey Emmert, spokeswoman for the Ohio Division of Wildlife, told this newspaper last summer that “White deer are a product of a recessive gene in both the mother’s and father’s DNA, which result in white offspring. This recessive genetic trait is found in about 1 percent of all white-tail deer.”
ECOLOGICAL DAMAGE
But other factors suggest overpopulation of deer in MetroParks properties, Derico said.
A big one is the ecological damage to plants. Deer feed on a variety of woody and herbaceous plants but have preferred species they like to eat, like spring wildflowers, Derico said.
“When deer are overabundant, they gravitate toward those preferred species and disproportionately impact those species, effectively removing them from the landscape,” Derico said. “Oftentimes what are left are plants that are unpalatable to deer.”
It leads to a high prevalence of invasive species, he said. Overpopulation of deer also leads to a “browse line” where the deer have eaten the vegetation from about 5 feet down.
“They can strip the forest understory of growth,” Derico said. “As sapling trees begin to grow, they get browsed to the ground and killed immediately, so there is no intermediate story of succession coming up through our forest right now. So we are missing an entire generation of forest growth right now due to deer browsing.”
The MetroParks has been experimenting in Hitchcock Woods for five years with a deer-proof enclosure to show what the park would look like if deer were not able to browse.
“We’re seeing ecological damage throughout all of our properties,” he said. “As the MetroParks, we’re stewards of the land. It’s our responsibility to manage these properties in the best interest of all species to promote biodiversity and encourage native species.”
He said deer overbrowsing is a problem throughout the nation, “so many people think that is completely normal and they just don’t realize what it really should be like.”
When plant life is negatively affected, it “affects a multitude of other species, mammals, birds, infections, amphibians … because they’re missing habitat,” Derico said. A bird called the wood thrush used to nest in the MetroParks, but they don’t anymore “because their habitat is gone,” he said. “That’s just one example.”
When Derico was asked about the point of view some people may have that enjoying the deer is the most important thing, Derico said “It’s our job … to protect these parcels and it’s important now for future generations. What will happen to future generations if there is no forest succession?” Derico said.
Read the original article at The Vindicator.
Deer count is overestimated, wildlife watcher argues
/in Media Coverage/by Mill Creek MetroParks StaffMill Creek MetroParks’ deer numbers are wrong, Mickey Drabison of Youngstown said.
He led a group of people on a walk in Mill Creek Park on Feb. 19 to look at the deer population after they heard MetroParks officials talk about overpopulation of deer. The group plans another walk today.
He said the reason for the walks is to show people and let them decide for themselves whether the deer are overpopulating. He said he believes the number the MetroParks has given — 387 per square mile — is not accurate.
He thinks the number is much less.
The group will be back out again today from 10 a.m. to noon for another look starting near the parking areas across from the Mill Creek Golf course, which is on West Golf Drive.
The group previously walked north of the golf course near the Morley Pavilion and the Lily Pond and did not see deer, but Drabison said the area near the golf course has more. He said the area where the group walked Feb. 19 generally has two herds of five deer each. “And another group of six that come up and do their eating.”
He was surprised his group did not see any deer, but noted dogs do scare them off.
Drabison, who lives close to the park, said he has walked nearly every day in the park for the past 10 years. He said he typically sees about 15 or 20 deer in a few herds.
“I follow the white deer,” he said. A white deer named Faith is in that area, he said.
He said 387 deer in a square mile “comes down to 10 herds of 38 deer per square mile. I’ve never seen deer like that in this place. There are deer, but their number is not quite right, in my opinion,” Drabison said of the MetroParks.
“These people out here see it. I see it,” Drabison said of the real number of deer. He said he does not have personal knowledge of the deer population south of U.S. Route 224.
He said he is familiar with area from McCollum Road to Shields Road and thinks there are maybe 100 deer in that area, which is about 4 miles long.
“I could walk you or draw you a map and show you right where they are at. You could go there and see the deer I am talking about. That’s it,” he said. He thinks more are south of Shields Road near the golf course, where he saw a herd of about 16 deer about a month ago.
“That’s the biggest herd I’ve ever seen there,” Drabison said. “The rest are maybe six or seven walking around together.”
ALBINO OR NOT
Drabison said he disagrees if the MetroParks is saying that the white deer in Mill Creek Park are albino deer. “There is not an albino deer in the park. There hasn’t been,” he said.
A leucistic deer can be all-white coat — but commonly retain some level of normal pigmentation in their hooves, noses or in their eyes.
One named Queenie died in 2021 at Schenley Avenue and Bear’s Den Road. Drabison found the deer after it died. He saw her born — one of 11 deer he has seen born in the park. Her death was related to not being able to birth a calf.
“The deer trust me,” he said.
Queenie was not an albino because she had yellow eyes, Drabison said. She was healthy except for a two-week issue with parasites.
Drabison said he believes the presence of a white deer like Queenie does not indicate any genetic issues that would suggest overpopulation of deer, because he believes white deer are “just like the brown deer” in their health.
He’s heard the argument that vegetation is being destroyed by the deer, but doubts that, too. The only type of damage he hears about or observes, he said, is deer coming into yards and eating flowers.
Drabison said he thinks the MetroParks is making plans to reduce the deer population to get money from allowing hunters to reduce the herd.
COUNTERPOINT
Nick Derico, MetroParks natural resources manager, was asked about Drabison’s opinion about the park district’s data on the number of deer.
A key part of data collection was an aerial, infrared survey carried out at night from an airplane Jan. 21, 2022, in Mill Creek Park and Jan. 26, 2022, in the rest of the park’s facilities.
Derico said the type of survey done for the MetroParks numbers has been “used for years, even the late 1900s,” and in the 2000s the park district did the same type of survey.
He said the surveyor who provided the data “went painstakingly for months, going through the data. Each (thermal) signature gets evaluated based on its size, its shape, its habit, meaning if there is a heat signature in the middle of Lake Newport, that’s not a deer. And then deer do give off a distinctive thermal characteristic based on how heat is reflected off of their coats,” Derico said.
He said the thermal imaging camera “can (or) will pick up more than just deer, but each signature was evaluated on its own merit and determined whether it was consistent with a deer.” He said there is a “confidence interval” of 85 percent, meaning the surveyor is “85 percent or more confident in his results,” Derico said.
He said the snow-covered, cold weather the two nights of the survey were ideal for the survey. The surveyor flew at about 1,100 feet, providing “great survey conditions,” Derico said. “We’re confident in the survey numbers. We don’t know what to tell people who don’t believe them.”
Derico noted that people are allowed to be in the MetroParks only during the day, not at night, and deer “are most active in the evening and at dawn and dusk and throughout the night. They bed during the day, typically.” They do sometimes feed even at mid-day but not typically.
“If you are walking in daylight on a trail, as you should be, there are plenty of areas where deer could be obscured from your vision,” Derico said. The way a person might walk in the park “is certainly not a comprehensive look at all areas of the MetroParks.”
When Derico was asked about Drabison’s theory that the MetroParks would reduce the deer herd to make money off of a hunt, he responded: “Absolutely not. Quite the opposite. There is no financial gain for the MetroParks through any of the methods (of reducing the herd.) In fact, it’s cost the MetroParks to gather this survey data and staff time to look into the issue. There is no financial motivation.”
Aaron Young, MetroParks executive director, said that “to imply that we are only looking at the deer overpopulation because of financial gain is simply inaccurate.” Young said the MetroParks will not decide what method would be used to reduce the herd until it hears the input from the public.
The MetroParks is trying to educate the public on this issue through the web site where the public can provide input at www.millcreekmetroparks.org/white-tailed-deer-in-mill-creek-metroparks, Young said.
“The presentation (Derico) gave at the last meeting (Feb. 13) was the culmination of two years of data collection,” Young said.
The MetroParks wants to create a white-tail deer management plan, which exists in many other park districts in northeast Ohio, Derico said.
The MetroParks board again will discuss the issue March 13. Derico will make recommendations to the park board on what to do.
Read the original article at The Vindicator.