ATHENS, Ohio — A limited bow hunting program will be held on several City of Athens properties in the coming months, with the goal of controlling the deer population.
Complaints made to the Athens City Council about damage inflicted by white-tailed deer motivated the creation of this program, said Katherine Ann Jordan, the director of the Athens Arts, Parks and Recreation Department. While the Ohio Department of Natural Resources doesn’t estimate the number of deer in any given county, they do keep track of the deer harvested from a county to give a rough idea of the population.
“We really want to encourage the harvesting of doe,” Jordan said. “That’s really important for deer management. … We want deer but we don’t want so many.”
The Department of Arts, Parks and Recreation will determine who gets to hunt these lands via a lottery system, with the drawing of names occurring this Wednesday, Sept. 4.
Hunters who win the lottery will be required to submit a copy of their hunting license, a $100 fee to hunt on the land and a deer permit before Sept. 20. The fee will go into the city’s recreation fund, which funds labor costs related to organizing the hunt and other associated expenses.
Find the list of city properties where hunting will be allowed here.
The city’s process is similar to those in other municipalities which allow limited hunting on government owned land, such as Cincinnati’s bow hunting lottery and the Ohio Department of Natural Resources controlled hunts. Outside of hunting on city land, there are no other special privileges afforded to hunters participating in the program; they must obey all laws, rules and regulations.
“Our program is an archery hunt because within city limits you are not allowed to shoot a firearm,” Jordan said.
To make the job of these hunters easier, they will be allowed to construct temporary deer blinds and tree stands. However, baiting is strictly prohibited. Micheal Tonkovich, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources Deer Program administrator, anticipates that these deer may behave differently than those in other areas due to their frequent exposure to people, but encouraged hunters to remain cautious about the unpredictability of wildlife.
“While these deer have habituated to humans, they are likely to respond differently to people in elevated stands/trees,” Tonkovich said in an email.
In total there will be five sessions of bow hunting held across 13 city properties, totalling over 600 acres of land. Each session will last a few weeks spanning from the end of September to the start of February, resulting in 65 permits given out across bow season.
According to Jordan, 31 hunters have entered into the lottery as of Sept. 4, meaning that every hunter will have the opportunity to hunt at least twice.
“I don’t believe that we will have every property full for every session with the number of people registered,” Jordan said. “I think it’s good that we are not inundated with so many people as we figure everything out.”
Tonkovich is happy to see the city hold a limited hunt, but wants people to know that limited hunts aren’t a quick fix.
“If your herd is sufficiently large, reducing it might actually trigger a density-dependent response in reproduction, which translates to more deer to be removed the following year,” Tonkovich said in an email. “In short, it is quite complicated.”
According to Jordan, the City of Athens has no target number for the amount of deer they’d like harvested and is more interested in gathering demographic information on the deer herds of Athens.
“The city is interested in the number of deer harvested, their gender, and when and where they are harvested in order to get a better sense of the deer population,” Jordan said.
