Photo by Bill Lea

Ohio’s urban whitetail population has adapted so well to “city living” that the deer have become a nuisance to landowners, damaging expensive shrubbery and backyard gardens. Their habit of crossing busy roadways at the most inappropriate times is an equally serious problem.

In response, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources’ Division of Wildlife has devised an Urban Deer Program including special zones and permits. These suburban settings can be some of the best hunting opportunities in Ohio, not just for does but also for trophy bucks.

“As far as Ohio’s Urban Deer Zones go, the history is pretty simple,” said Mike Tonkovich, the ODOW’s top deer biologist. “In 1994, Urban Deer zones were created, centered around major urban areas.”

Deer populations in Ohio’s urban-suburban areas, along with the rest of the state have been increasing dramatically. As the numbers rose, so did complaints of deer damage and as deer-vehicle collisions. Deer were controllable in the rural and public forested areas of the state, though the population continued to climb for a few more years. But in the urban-suburban areas, hunters had very little access and little interest in hunting in a “neighborhood” environment. Numbers continued to climb, unchecked except by highway mortality.

“Urban areas are not very attractive from a deer hunter’s point of view,” Tonkovich said. “So we initially decided to create Urban Deer zones and issue Urban Deer permits valid for antlerless deer only.”

This program aims to manage urban-suburban deer populations. To make hunting in this highly developed setting more attractive, hunters were allowed to take additional antlerless deer beyond the normal statewide limits. Hunters may purchase as many as four Urban Deer permits, allowing them to take seven deer annually, depending on the area being hunted, though only one may be a buck.

Hunters must first have purchased a standard Special Deer Permit before using an Urban Deer Permit.

“We didn’t get much response the first year, but the next year, we cut the price of the tag in half,” Tonkovich noted. The cost is now $15 for an Urban Deer Permit. Sales have been fairly stable since then.

“The only problem with it is, any time you create a zone, you also create a law-enforcement problem,” Tonkovich said. Some hunters have taken deer outside of an Urban Deer Unit and then tagging them with an Urban Deer Permit.

There is debate within the ODNR as to how often this has been happening, but law enforcement officials rigorously pursue cases of misuse of the permits.

The establishment of zones also creates potential misunderstandings. Initially, five Urban Deer Hunting units were created, including the Columbus, Cincinnati-Dayton, Cleveland-Akron, Youngstown and Toledo Urban Deer Units.

Boundaries were established using easily recognizable highways and county lines. Roads might not be misunderstood, but county lines are invisible in most cases.

Some hunters still don’t understand that the program does not permit hunting just anywhere within an Urban Deer Unit. It is also the hunter’s responsibility to obey the rules and laws regarding firearms and archery equipment. Tonkovich noted that an area’s designation as an Urban Deer Unit in no way supersedes existing firearm regulations or community prohibitions on hunting.