The Cuyahoga Valley National Park will start shooting white-tailed deer for the first time, beginning in early January.
The park will rely on federal sharpshooters to shoot 350 deer in its effort to protect the park’s forests and its biodiversity, spokeswoman Mary Pat Doorley said on Thursday.
The deer will be attracted by baits and shot at night from elevated stands by two to four sharpshooters from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Services Wildlife Services. That agency has been involved in shooting deer at other national park units in the East, she said.
The sharpshooters will be armed with rifles equipped with noise suppressors and supported by a team of six to eight park personnel, she said. The shooting will begin around Jan. 1 and run to March 31.
The shooting will take place from dusk to dawn Monday through Thursday, although it will be completed most nights by midnight, Doorley said.
Closures as needed
Much of the shooting will take place away from public areas and trails, but park areas will be closed to the public as needed, she said. The National Park Service is advising park visitors to refrain from off-trail hiking after dusk from January through March as an extra precaution.
The news drew mixed reactions.
“That’s sad for the deer but it is something that needs to be done,” said park visitor Anita Hausknecht of Stow. “If it’s really needed, it’s the right decision.”
Deer “can be a nuisance” but Peninsula residents have learned to coexist with the animals, said Nancy Miller of Peninsula. She still gardens, although she admits that the deer get many of her plants.
Russ O’Brien, 68, of Stow said he had “very mixed feelings” about the deer-shooting plans. Deer can be a problem, he said, but he is unsure what is the best action.
The shooting will take place only on federally owned land within the park, Doorley said. That includes about two thirds of the 33,000-acre federal park between Akron and Cleveland.
Letters will be mailed to park residents and neighbors. The park has also notified local municipalities.
The plan, released last February, is to shoot 350 deer in each of the first four years and 175 in the fifth year to reduce deer densities to more desirable levels. The park is also looking at developing a deer contraceptive program in the fifth year. If that program fails, additional deer will be shot.
“The most humane way is what we’re doing,” Doorley said.
The federal park intends to work closely with Summit Metro Parks and Cleveland Metroparks, Doorley said.
Both park districts will be shooting deer at the same time as the federal park. The three parks will work together on processing the venison, which will be provided to food banks in the Akron-Canton and Cleveland area.
The first year of the Cuyahoga Valley project had been projected to cost $300,000 to $400,000, but it appears that actual costs will be significantly less, she said.
Deer to be tested
The Cuyahoga Valley deer will also be tested for the first time for chronic wasting disease, a fatal degenerative brain disorder in deer and elk, Doorley said.
The disease has not been detected in park deer but it has been found in escaped captive deer in Holmes County. Federal park rules mandate the tests be conducted because the disease has been found within 60 miles of the Cuyahoga Valley park.
There is no evidence that the disease has spread to humans, but that remains a concern, according to federal health officials
The dead deer will be stored in the park while their brain tissue is tested in Fort Collins, Colo. Test results are expected back within a week. The dead deer that test negative for the disease can then be cleared for distribution to the food banks.
The Cuyahoga Valley is working to get deer densities to a more desirable 23 deer per square mile, Doorley said. The current density parkwide is about 40 deer per square mile and that can create problems. The park has about 1,700 deer, according to a 2013 estimate.
In earlier years, the deer’s density in small areas of the park had approached 100 deer per square mile, but those levels have dropped, largely due to the deer-shooting efforts of the two metro park districts, she said.
The size of the deer herd is threatening forests in the Cuyahoga Valley park, she said. Trees are producing seeds, but hungry deer are eating all the seedlings.
“That threatens the ability of our forests to survive,” Doorley said. “If it persists, we will have no forests.” With the plan, it is expected that the young trees will rebound.
In the past, there were obvious browse lines up to five feet off the ground where hungry deer had devoured everything, affecting plants and other animals including ground-nesting birds.
Shooting deer will also protect the park’s cultural landscapes.
The park’s plan has been submitted to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources’ Division of Wildlife for required approval.
In 1997, Cuyahoga Valley had proposed shooting deer but that plan was blocked by a federal judge in Washington, D.C. That triggered years of study and analysis of the deer in Cuyahoga Valley. It took eight years for the park to complete its plan, which was discussed at public hearings.
Bob Downing can be reached at 330-996-3745 or bdowning@thebeaconjournal.com.