Officials reflect on deer program

In 2012, the city of Mentor set out to control its surging deer population. Five years later, city officials say mission accomplished.

City Manager Ken Filipiak recently provided a report to City Council on the impact that the deer management program has had.

“After five years, I think it’s important to offer both council and our residents an assessment of where we are because the Ohio Department of Natural Resources continues to look at our program as a model for the rest of Ohio and to hold it up as an example,” Filipiak said.

ODNR Division of Wildlife staff estimate that the deer population is at about 390 animals now, or fewer than 15 deer per square mile. That is

down from a conservative count of 33 per square mile in one section of the city when the program began.

“The ideal number that we would seek in an urban environment is somewhere between 10 and 15 per acre,” Filipiak said. “So after five years of really hard work and cooperation — with education, the hunting program and the efforts of our police department — we have reduced our herd to sustained levels, so we are actually now entering into a maintenance mode.”

By the numbers

At the peak of its program, in 2014, more than 400 deer were taken via bowhunters and culling. Last year, the total number was about 225.

This bowhunting season, just 60 permits were issued and about 50 deer removed.

“(That) is believed to be all that will be required in our city to maintain our current levels,” Filipiak said. Culling, which begins Feb. 5, will continue, but as a smaller component of the program.

Car-deer crashes are down as well.

“If you recall, one of the primary reasons why we began a maintenance program was the recognition that our community was highlighted as the highest in Northeast Ohio for deervehicular accidents,” he said. “Back in 2013, we had 96 accidents involving vehicles and deer. Last year, we had our lowest in over a decade. We had 27 and that’s actually down from 42 the prior year.

“So we have met nearly every one or our goals over this five-year period, we’re at a maintenance level, we have seen the ecosystem in public areas and our private areas come back, in terms

of regrowth of the understory. We have had very, very positive comments, and I know that council members have too, about sustenance of (residents’) private property and landscaping …. And the public is safer as a result.”

He added that there hasn’t been a single safety incident related to the program since its inception. In addition, 100 percent of the deer meat acquired through culling — more than 20,000 pounds — has been donated to local food banks that serve the Mentor and Lake County area.

Other efforts included outlawing feeding deer and placing deer-deterrent devices along some corridors known for deer-motorist collisions.

Oh deer

The program hasn’t been without its detractors. Some residents have spoken multiple times at council meetings to express their disapproval of the killings.

Halfway through the first bowhunting season,

resident Dan Welker complained of an incident in which a buck shot by a hunter wandered off an approved hunting zone and died. The hunter, in violation of the city’s law, didn’t contact the city but instead retrieved animal. The deed was discovered after the property owner saw evidence of the dead animal.

A Geneva man pleaded guilty to hunting without permission, was sentenced to pay a $500 fine, forfeit the deer, and serve three months probation and five days volunteering. His permit was permanently revoked and there have been no other reports of illegal activity, officials said.

Then there was the driveway field-dressing incident in October 2016. A resident was preparing a dead deer in front of his home, causing a commotion in his neighborhood. He had broken no law, so City Council amended its ordinances to prohibit people from butchering or slaughtering an animal in public view. Violators are

guilty of a fourth-degree misdemeanor.

Leading by example

Mentor was the first — and is still the only — municipality in Northeast Ohio to combine bowhunting and sharpshooting to manage its deer population, said Geoff Westerfield, assistant wildlife management supervisor for ODNR’s Wildlife Division.

“That is important in a city as large as Mentor and with as much city-owned (and) managed areas that Mentor has,” he said. “That allows them to use hunters as the initial removal tool and then the city can use sharpshooters in areas where there are no hunters or where hunting isn’t allowed (or) feasible.”

There are eight municipalities and three park districts in the region that are doing some form of deer culling. That doesn’t include cities that only allow hunting. Eight of those 11 started after Mentor began its program.

Westerfield noted that

one size doesn’t fit all, and that the use of sharpshooters from Mentor Police Department was necessary to get deer numbers down quickly.

All such efforts have their pros and cons, and they are continually being tweaked to become more efficient and cost-effective, Westerfield said.

“In my opinion, Mentor still needs to allow hunters to hunt on Sundays,” he said. “To my knowledge, no other city in Ohio doesn’t allow Sunday hunting.”

The city administration sought to change that in January 2013, but it was shot down by City Council 6 to 1.

Councilwoman at large Janet Dowling made the motion to retain the prohibition on Sunday hunts.

“Our program was very successful (in 2012),” she

said at the time. “I don’t really see the benefit of hunting on Sundays.”

Westerfield continues to work with the city to “finetune” the program.

“I think Mentor will be set for success into the future regarding managing (its) deer herd,” he said.