NE Ohio leads state in deer-car crashes ODOT finds top spots in Stark, Lorain, Medina

A male white-tailed deer crosses the street, Wednesday, Nov. 3, 2010, in suburban Shaker Heights, Ohio.

(Amy Sancetta, Associated Press)

BRECKSVILLE, Ohio -- The Cuyahoga Valley National Park next year will join a growing list of public entities that have turned to lethal deer culling to control unnaturally large populations.

The national park that straddles Cuyahoga and Summit counties wants to take 350 deer a year for the next four years.

Sharpshooters from the U.S. Department of Agriculture will work from early January through mid-March. They will employ noise suppressers and work at night, like the Cleveland Metroparks shooting detail.

In fact, the culling in 2016 can be described as the first coordinated regional deer-management program, because the national park will work closely with Cleveland Metroparks and Summit Metro Parks. All will be culling at the same time, though all shooting on federal land will be done by federal employees.

Critics insist that using firearms and powerful bows to thin deer herds is unnecessary because contraceptive methods provide a tamer alternative. National park managers have responded that current contraceptive technology does not meet all of the National Park Service's criteria so some culling is needed.

The contraception standards require that the drug can be delivered remotely, instead of by capturing and injecting individual deer. The criteria say the drug cannot make the deer unsafe for human consumption, cannot affect the deer's behavior and must be effective for at least three years.

Culling in the Cleveland Metroparks and Summit Metro Parks has helped reduce the deer population in the national park, park officials have said.

In 1999, the national park had a deer population of 87 per square mile. The number had dropped last year to 41 per square mile, or about 1,700 throughout the park. The optimal number is about 20 per square mile.

The park has been examining options since 2006. Lethal culling is growing because it is seen as the most effective method available to protect habitat and reduce the number of deer-car collisions.

Cleveland Metroparks, which has culled since 1998, is expected to resume its program from January through mid-March. Shooting teams took 405 deer in the first quarter of 2015 and donated nine tons of venison to the Greater Cleveland Food Bank.

According to the national park, deer shot by the USDA teams will be processed with deer from the Cleveland Metroparks.

Westlake City Council last month approved a deer-management program of its own that follows many of the practices employed by the Metroparks. It may be run by city safety personnel or contractors or both. In addition to Westlake, Pepper Pike, Solon, North Olmsted and Avon Lake have culling programs, and six other communities will let voters have a say on the subject in March.

The Cuyahoga Valley National Park straddles Cuyahoga and Summit counties and embraces 32,000 acres, though only 19,000 are federal. The rest are in the Cleveland Metroparks and Summit Metro Parks.

Lethal culling may be new to the national park here, but it is not to the National Park Service. NPS programs, especially out west, also target elk, bison and wild horses, according to the park service.

People living near target areas in the national park here will be notified when the culling is to begin, and portions of the national park may be closed.

Those with complaints, comments or questions can call the Cuyahoga Valley National Park hotline at 440-546-5975.