TOLEDO MAGAZINE THE BLADE, TOLEDO, OHIO SUNDAY, JANUARY 7, 2018 SECTION C, PAGE 6 THE OUTDOORS PAGE Too many deer THE BLADE Wildlife biologists report that an overabundance of deer creates serious problems because of the damage their extensive browsing can cause to the forest understory and ecosystem. Parks work to limit habitat damage By Blade Outdoors Editor Matt Markey from the greater Side Cut area. used to conduct deer culls in the Cleve- and Blade artist Jeff Basting Mr. Schetter said the deer in the Side Cut land suburb of Avon Park, Cuyahoga Valley area are healthy, adding that the signs of National Park, and in parks in the Dayton he best place in the Toledo area to signi cant damage to the habitat show up area, as well as in Ann Arbor. see white-tailed deer is not the zoo well before the deer herd shows any indi- With their natural predators such as T or an animal park, or along the corn cations of malnutrition. bears, wolves, and cougars long absent elds of the surrounding countryside. At “In the short term, the biggest impact is from the landscape, highly adaptive white- Side Cut Metropark, the deer seem to out- on the resource,” he said. “ e deer at Side tails have ourished in the parks and natu- number everything but the trees and the Cut have plenty to eat, with all of the trees ral areas where they nd food sources and river rocks. and the landscaping around the houses bedding areas. Minus predators or hunters, A stroll through the park will con rm near the park, but in our surveys we are deer herds grow exponentially, and with what aerial surveys have shown — the park seeing a lot fewer seedlings and the spring the average whitetail consuming 2,500 to proper and the adjoining park properties wild owers just are not there anymore. 3,000 pounds of plant material a year, a have an abundance of deer. e large her- Without those seedlings which the deer are burgeoning deer herd can quickly alter the bivores are so prevalent that Metroparks devouring, we won’t have the structure for landscape. Toledo wildlife experts believe there are a healthy forest in the future.” While some scienti c projections go more than four times as many deer as the Besides doing substantial damage to even higher, Mike Tonkovich, who has a landscape can healthily support. Ph.D. in sheries and wildlife sciences With that burgeoning population of from Virginia Tech and is the deer program deer continuing to expand, biologists have administrator for the Ohio Division of scheduled a round of culls for the greater Culling is not hunt- Wildlife, said herd growth rates in the parks Side Cut area, which includes Blue Grass and preserves can still be staggering. Island, Audubon Island and Fallen Tim- ing. It is a wildlife “In an un-hunted herd, it would not be a bers Battle eld. As part of the deer damage stretch to see an annual growth rate of 45 to control permit Metroparks received from management tool 60 percent,” he said. BLADE GRAPHIC the Ohio Division of Wildlife, additional Some parties opposed to deer culls have DETAILS OF THE CULL culling is also planned for Swan Creek Pre- used by many park pushed for the use of birth control or sur- ■ Culling is part of the Metroparks deer management program, intended to reduce serve, Oak Openings Preserve, Wildwood gical sterilization instead of killing deer, the number of white-tailed deer safely, humanely, and effectively. Preserve, Middlegrounds Metropark and systems, including but Christopher Dick, who has a a Ph.D. in Toledo Botanical Garden. organismic and evolutionary biology from ■ Culls are conducted at night, when the parks are closed. e conventional wisdom among wild- Metroparks Toledo. Harvard and is a biologist at the Universi- ■ Culling takes place from elevated stands, utilizing the ground as a natural life managers in the Midwest puts the max- ty of Michigan, says the case for nonlethal backstop. deer management is fraught with pseudo- imum sustainable population of white- ■ tailed deer at 15-25 animals per square native plant species and communities, the science. He said “the anti-cull movement Bolt action rearms are used, with suppressors attached to the muzzle to mile. e most recent survey around Side browsing of too many white-tailed deer has parallels to the anti-vaccination move- reduce the report (noise) and ash. Cut showed a density of 108 deer per also poses a threat to the food sources and ment” adding that both “are grounded in ■ Deer are killed instantly, using frangible ammunition which crumbles when it square mile. nesting areas of birds, small mammals, ideology (and) thrive on creative interpre- strikes the target, avoiding the possibility of ricochet. “Even at the upper end of the formula, amphibians and reptiles. tations of science.” we’re seeing more than four times the den- “It is a complicated issue, but if we wait e Michigan biologist said using immu- ■ Does are targeted and night vision scopes are used to determine the sex of the sity that is supportable,” said Tim Schetter, until we start to see real signs of malnutri- nocontraceptives is impractical since they deer and its position relative to the marksman. who has a Ph.D. in conservation biology tion in the deer herd that would mean we require booster shots be administered to ■ In 2017, 200 deer were culled from Oak Openings and Swan Creek Metroparks. have already lost a lot of the battle,” Mr. increasingly wary does, while surgical ster- from BGSU and is a certi ed wildlife biol- The deer were processed locally and approximately 10,000 pounds of venison was ogist and the director of natural resources Schetter said. ilization carries prohibitive costs. Fairfax for Metroparks. “ at would signal very serious impact City, Va., paid about $1,000 per doe for an donated to area food pantries. With the approval of the Metroparks of over-browsing throughout the park.” ovary removal program, while in 2016 New ■ The nonpro t organization Farmers and Hunters Feeding the Hungry paid for board, sharpshooters from USDA Animal Metroparks Toledo was the last major York City’s parks department agreed to half of the $12,000 processing costs, with Metroparks paying the remainder. and Plant Health Inspection Service, as- park district in Ohio to use signi cant cull- pay $2 million to perform vasectomies on Sources: APHIS, ODNR, Metroparks sisted by Metroparks personnel, will cull ing as part of its management plan. white-tailed bucks on Staten Island. deer on as many as six nights between Jan. Cleveland Metroparks began culling “In the absence of other predators, kill- Jerome Rd. 1 and March 31. deer in 1998 and to date those culls have ing healthy deer for venison remains the e culling permit allows the removal resulted in nearly 300,000 pounds of pro- most natural and e ective way to limit deer of up to 285 deer from the six parks and cessed venison being donated to Cleveland abundance and sustain a broad diversity of preserve areas, with up to 125 being475 taken area food banks. Sharpshooters have been native species,” he said. Monclova Rd. Anthony Wayne Trail W. Broadway St. Silver Lake Side Cut W. River Rd. THE BLADE Fallen Timbers Metropark Battleeld Metropark 200 New total POTENTIAL GROWTH OF A DEER HERD herd size An example of how a herd of 100 white- 174 Blue Grass tailed deer could expand in one-year’s time. New Island growth herd 150 Cemetery size 74 24 Total herd size Herd 100 breakdown 475 100 Total offspring Does each Original Fallen Timbers 56 herd Monument doe group Siegert Lake produced* size 100 Doe herd Adult breakdown 52 50 Doe Adult herd 31 Bucks size 44 56 Yearling 12 Yearling 18 Fawn 13 N. River Rd. 0 Fawn 4 Maumee River 2 miles *These gures represent a potential 74 percent increase in the herd size, in THE BLADE the absence of hunting, since adult does often produce twins. The actual herd Many park systems have resorted to culling white-tailed deer as growth likely will be less because of still births, abandonment, coyote predation a means to control the damage done by extensive browsing. of fawns, and other nonharvest related events. 0 0.1 0.2 Source:Miles ODNR, published & unpublished studies BLADE GRAPHIC.