The 18-month-long legal battle waged by the Save the Deer of Mill Creek Park group has apparently come to an end with the Ohio Supreme Court refusing to review an October 2024 ruling by the 7th District Court of Appeals that affirmed the Mill Creek MetroParks deer reduction program.

Marc Dann, the group’s attorney, stated in an email, “We are disappointed by the decision, but we will continue to encourage the Legislature to reign in boards and commissions like the Mill Creek Park Board, who exceed their statutory authority.”

Dann mentioned that he and the group are still awaiting a decision by a visiting judge on whether he will remove members of the Mill Creek MetroParks Board of Commissioners. The deer group filed petitions containing 2,500 signatures to the Mahoning County Probate Court in February of 2024 asking for their removal.

The group’s complaint with the MetroParks Board commissioners is that they gave “their total support, without question,” to Aaron Young, the MetroParks executive director, the letter with the petitions stated. The organization also has sought to have Young removed from his position.

The letter stated that the “presenters of these documents are from the Save the Mill Creek Park Deer group, which formed out of concern for hunting throughout Mill Creek Park.”

The letter added that while gathering the signatures for the petition in 2023, the signature gatherers “were informed of hundreds of complaints about the park, in addition to the original issue of hunting.”

Visiting Judge John Campbell, a retired judge from Carroll County, was appointed to hear the matter. He heard testimony during a hearing in August of 2024, but so far he has not issued a ruling.

Chris Flak, one of the organizers of the Save the Deer group, said Tuesday after learning of the Supreme Court’s decision that she feels the effort was worth it.

“Yea, and we’re not done yet. We have a couple other irons in the fire. We are also working with Boardman Township to try to help some of the legislators look at the current laws so that we can stop this hunting in the back yards of Boardman,” Flak said.

The effort has enabled the group to better address issues that may at times seem like a David-and-Goliath situation.

“We are always calling for accountability. We want that transparency from Mill Creek Park,” Flak said. “They still refuse to give it to us.”

Another issue that still bothers her is the MetroParks Board’s use of “greenwashing” to justify its decision to kill hundreds of deer — many of them very young.

When the MetroParks first proposed reducing the deer numbers, they said it was “overpopulation, sick animals, they were starving.” But later the MetroParks said the reason was to stop the damage the deer were doing to the vegetation of the parks.

According to the United Nations website, greenwashing is “misleading the public to believe that a company or other entity is doing more to protect the environment than it is.”

She said that in order to know whether the emphasis on plant life in the parks is “greenwashing” or not, “We would really like to know what are these plants and how are they managing these plants, in conjunction with this hunt,” she said.

“Are they bringing these plants back? Are they planting more things? How are they going to make sure that this vegetation fulfills their promise of being an environmentally sound organization?”