YOUNGSTOWN — With written arguments recently filed with the 7th District Court of Appeals, attorneys for the Mill Creek MetroParks and four residents living adjacent to the parks will make oral arguments on the legality of the MetroParks’ deer reduction program at 11 a.m. Oct. 9.

The arguments will be given at the appeal’s court’s West Federal Street courthouse.

The MetroParks’ July 29 filing, called a merit brief, states that there is “clear evidence” that the MetroParks has legal authority to carry out a deer reduction program, but the attorneys for the four property owners have “continued to set forth the same perplexing argument that Mill Creek does not have the legal authority.”

The four property owners, who are associated with the Save the Deer of Mill Creek Park organization, are appealing a decision by Mahoning County Common Pleas Court Judge Anthony Donofrio and his magistrate, Nicole Butler, who ruled in favor of the MetroParks and its deer-reduction plan.

The MetroParks went ahead with the reduction plan starting Oct. 1, 2023, and continuing into late January 2024. It resulted in 204 deer being killed through hunting on various MetroParks and through reductions by U.S. Department of Agriculture-employed sharpshooters who killed deer in the area of the Mill Creek Golf Course just north of Route 224 in Boardman.

The MetroParks filing cites several Ohio laws that it says give the MetroParks “ownership and title to all wild animals within the state — including white-tail deer at issue.”

It cites an Ohio law that it says gives the chief of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources Division of Wildlife “‘authority and control in all matters pertaining to the protection, preservation, propagation, possession and management of the wild animals,’ including regulatory power.”

The MetroParks partnered with the Division of Wildlife in carrying out the deer reductions on the Mill Creek Golf Course. The Division of Wildlife also assisted the park system in reducing deer by hunters selected through the ODNR deer lottery system.

The filing cites another Ohio law that it says gives Mill Creek MetroParks authority to conduct a deer-reduction program.

That law states that “The board of park commissioners shall adopt such bylaws and rules as the board considers advisable for the preservation of good order within and adjacent to parks and reservations of land and for the protection and preservation of the parks, parkways and other reservations of land under its jurisdiction and control and of property and natural life therein,” according to the filing.

The filing from four property owners, which was filed by attorney Marc Dann Aug. 2, argues just the opposite.

“While (the Mill Creek MetroParks) has repeatedly insisted it possesses the right to engage in efforts to eradicate the park’s population of deer on land it administers for the benefit of the public, the Ohio General Assembly never granted park districts this specific power, nor did the Ohio General Assembly authorize park districts like (the Mill Creek MetroParks) to invite hunters into a public park,” Dann argued.

He continued, stating that the “authority to conduct these activities in public parks … simply does not exist because park districts were never granted this authority by the legislature.”

Dann argues that the MetroParks “relies on phantom ‘implied’ powers or authority granted to a separate state agency.” He was referring to the ODNR.

But attorneys Gregory Beck and Andrea Ziarko of North Canton, on behalf of the MetroParks, stated in their brief to the appeals court that an Ohio law granting powers to park districts is “incredibly broad and grants park districts the authority to ‘protect and preserve the parks.'”

They added, “The deer management program is an effort to preserve the balance of an ecosystem needed to keep all wildlife and plants alive and thriving within the park, including but not limited to the white-tail deer population which suffers from malnourishment and disease when overpopulated.”

They stated: “Mill Creek (MetroParks) maintains there has been clear damage to the ecosystem, which is a direct result of deer overpopulation, and the deer management plan is a solution to correct the ecological damage done by over-browsing by the deer.”

Dann, meanwhile, stated that the “Ohio General Assembly never granted park districts like (Mill Creek MetroParks) any ‘broad authority’ to manage the park’s wildlife — it directed park boards to ‘protect’ and ‘preserve’ the park’s natural life. Moreover, the legislature did not delegate any power to (the Mill Creek MetroParks) to invite hunters into park properties or to seek permission from ODNR to do so.”