TOLEDO URBAN DEER UNIT
"The area along the Miami River is a virtual deer factory," said Tim Plageman, Wildlife Management supervisor for the ODOW's Wildlife District Two. "Lucas County is heavily developed, with pockets of deer problems, so the whole county was included in our Urban Deer Unit."

The Perrysburg area also has a deer problem, said Plageman, so it's included as well. "We encourage deer hunting as the No. 1 way to control deer," he noted, "and we provide people with an opportunity to take care of their deer problem. Hunters are also allowed to take more deer. That's what Urban Deer Units are all about.

"There's very little open space in the unit, but there is some farm country with woodlots in the western part of Lucas County. Landowners' doors are pounded on a lot."

The Toledo Urban Deer Unit includes all of Lucas and part of Wood counties. This section of north-central Ohio is generally flat and open. Though hunters may have problems obtaining permission to hunt in some areas, a lot of deer are taken by those who take the time to do so.

Public lands on the Toledo Urban Deer Unit are few and far between. The Missionary Island Wildlife Area is an island on the Maumee River covering about 300 acres. Two acre-sized islands are included.

Whitetails come and go from the main island, which has plenty of brush and tree cover. The area isn't well known or easily accessible, so local hunters do pretty well there. "The island doesn't get hunted regularly," said Plageman, who noted that hunters must make arrangements to get there by boat.

To reach the Missionary Island WA, go to the Farnsworth boat launch in the metro park east of Westerville on U.S. Route 24. Hunters may launch from there to make the 100-yard trip to the island.

Maumee State Forest covers over 3,000 acres, a significant portion of which lies within the Urban Deer Unit, in Fulton, Henry and Lucas counties. The boundaries of the section of Wood County included in the unit start where state Route 64 intersects with the Maumee River. Travel north on state Route 65, and then go east on Five Point Road to state Route 25, north to Interstate Route 475 and then east to where I-75 crosses the Maumee River.

For more information, contact the ODOW's District Two office at (419) 424-5000.

CLEVELAND-AKRON URBAN DEER UNIT
This unit includes much of Lorain, Summit, Stark, Wayne, Portage, Medina, Geauga and all of Lake and Cuyahoga counties in the northeastern part of the state. Many thousands of hunters are within a short drive of this unit.

"In the Cleveland-Akron Unit there is a higher deer population than hunters will find in the Youngstown area," said Jeff Westerfield, a District Three wildlife biologist. "Hunters won't have a problem finding deer in either unit, but sportsmen who are planning to hunt these urban areas need to realize that access is very limited."

The terrain is mostly flat, and the area is heavily populated. "There are many large areas within Urban Deer Units where hunters aren't allowed to hunt deer, such as in industrial parks and suburban developments," said Dan Kramer, another District Three wildlife biologist.

Public lands are limited. Hunters do have access to the Auburn Marsh WA, which covers 462 acres on Stafford Road a mile west of state Route 44 and about a mile north of U.S. Route 422 in Geauga County.