Granville resident Amy Gill came to the village council on Wednesday evening with a concern about hunting on village-owned land on the east side of town – and questions about the village’s program to allow hunters to thin the herd.
She’s worried about the safety of children on the east side, and she asked about the ethics of hunters attracting deer to the village-owned Munson Springs preserve to hunt them.
Gill, 43, lives on property next to Munson Springs, a 57-acre parcel the village bought to keep it from becoming a housing development, and to perhaps develop it into a park. A committee that studied possible permanent uses for the land previously presented recommendations to the council, which will discuss them at a meeting this month.
Gill said she spotted a couple of hunting blinds on the land last fall and winter a few hundred yards north of Newark Granville Road at the back of land that has been used for farm fields.
“I know that you guys have a hunting program,” she said to the council. “I don’t know a lot about the hunting program, but I was hoping that you might consider just making a change on Munson Springs.”
The large deer population within the village creates a nuisance for residents whose gardens are decimated by deer, and safety issues for motorists passing through the village, where cars frequently hit deer crossing streets and roads.
The problem prompted the village to develop a deer-management program, and allowing a limited number of bow hunters to take some deer is part of the program.
“The goal of the hunting program is to keep the deer population at a safe level.” said Police Chief William Caskey.
Hunters in the program go through an application process that includes a criminal background check and a shooting test to ensure safety and the program’s effectiveness.
Gill said that hunting should not be the only solution. She proposed an alternative
solution – birth control for deer, as described on The Humane Society of the United States website. It’s known as PZP (porcine zona pellucida), and is an immunocontraception vaccine that helps reduce deer population.
The council acknowledged the safety and ethical concerns of hunting on the Munson Springs property and said village employees will be asked to install temporary signage there for two months to prohibit access and warn citizens of the hunting zone.
Additionally, council members said they will also contact the Humane Society for details about its recommendations for controlling the deer population.
“Maybe there are other creative ways where we can reduce the scope of the hunting program, but also achieve the same end of reducing the deer population in a different way,” said Village Manager Herb Koehler.
The council has yet to decide on how best to use the “lower half” of Munson Spring – the flat portion on the north side of Newark Granville Road across from the Fackler Kubota Tractor store, as well as whether the hilly upper half will be a park-like preserve and whether it will remain part of the hunting program.
A public meeting will be held at 5 p.m. on Sept. 25 at the village hall for council members to hear from a committee that developed recommendations for potential uses for Munson Springs. The village is planning two public meetings at later dates to allow residents to express their thoughts about the recommendations. Those meetings have not yet been scheduled.
This story was updated on Sept. 10 to include the date of the public meeting about Munson Springs.
Donna Chang writes for TheReportingProject.org, the nonprofit news organization of Denison University’s Journalism program, which is supported by generous donations from readers. Sign up for The Reporting Project newsletter here.