The city of Athens began its Pilot Controlled Deer Archery Program at the start of the 2024-25 Ohio hunting season. This pilot-controlled archery program is a lottery-style hunting program, allowing licensed hunters who enter the lottery to be selected to hunt on select Athens lands after purchasing a $100 permit.
White-tailed deer was the only breed permitted to be hunted during the 2024-25 pilot controlled archery season from Sept. 28, 2024, to Feb. 2, 2025. The lottery drawing for permits occurred Sept. 4, 2024.
The term “pilot controlled” refers to the first program of its kind within Athens. Controlled refers to the lottery being a controlled hunt, a term used by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources.
According to the ODNR’s Final 2024-25 Deer Harvest Report, Athens County hunters harvested 3,663 white-tailed deer during the 2024-25 hunting season. In the years 2021-23, hunters harvested 3,265 white-tailed deer.
The three-year average compares the recent year’s numbers, eliminating year-to-year variation due to weather, misaligned season dates, crop harvest and other unavoidable factors.
Of the 3,663 harvested deer in Athens County from the 2024-25 hunting season, five were harvested from the Athens archery program.
Katherine Ann Jordan, director of Athens Arts, Parks & Recreation, described the result of the archery program.
“We had 16 people participate in the hunt, and four of those people, we had one person who got two deer, but four of those people harvested deer,” Jordan said.
Pleasantly surprised, she said there were between 28-29 hunters in the lottery and everyone was awarded a space, but not everyone purchased a permit.
“I think as far as the deer numbers, we’re pretty pleased that four people were able to harvest a deer,” Jordan said.
The city of Athens' bow hunting program was born out of an issue community members have brought forward in years past.
“There have been a few articles over the past several years highlighting citizens coming to City Council meetings and saying the city needs to do something about the deer population,” Jordan said.
Jordan referenced the Cleveland Metroparks when including other areas with similar hunting measures, such as archery, to reduce deer populations as they affect ecosystems and flora.
Glenn Matlack, a professor of environmental and plant biology, recalls his experience in his field research and the deer population in Athens.
“Two years ago, I set up a trial in which I marked something like 460 individual wildflowers around Strouds Run, and I revisited them every two weeks to watch their development and flowering of seeds and so forth,” Matlack said. “I started with 460, six months later, I was down to 280 plants. Why? Because Bambi had been in there eating my experiment,” Matlack said.
Kim Thompson, an associate professor of environmental and plant biology, described the destruction as a result of the deer population.
“Deer can also serve as vectors for the bacterium that causes Lyme disease,” Thompson wrote in an email.
The behavior of white-tailed deer can be dangerous. The ODNR describes the behavior as hazardous to humans, oftentimes resulting in serious accidents during the breeding season in the fall.
Councilmember Jeff Risner, D-2nd Ward, spoke about the state’s efforts in the deer population. He said city efforts may not be as effective until the state of Ohio can reduce the deer population overall.
“I’m just of the opinion that there’s no crisis, and this is not a major problem, it’s not a big issue,” Risner said. “It’s just a matter of can we coexist peacefully?”
Sam Crowl, Athens City Council president, spoke about the City Council’s role in budgetary items as well as legislation, explaining the archery program to be an administrative decision.
“If there was any legislation that had to be approved for a program like this, then that would have to come through City Council,” Crowl said.
Jordan said the Pilot Controlled Deer Archery Program looks to make improvements in the program prior to the next hunting season, such as lowering the permit cost and, based on the feedback from hunters, removing a couple of lands from the lottery.
“New partnerships coming and definitely a few tweaks to our program,” Jordan said.
Crowl spoke about the ODNR working with Athens Arts, Parks & Recreation to manage the archery program.
“We definitely look to them for their sort of guidance on really tackling the problem at a large scale,” Crowl said.
