The Worthington City Council has unanimously approved using U.S. Department of Agriculture sharpshooters to help manage the city's deer population in late 2026 and early 2027.
It will be the second time the city has used sharpshooters to cull the city's deer, after starting the practice in late 2025 and early 2026
. The sharpshooters killed 100 deer over the course of eight nights during the program's first season.The resolution that City Council approved 7-0 at its Sept. 8 meeting authorizes Worthington's city manager to enter into a contract with the USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service Wildlife Services to kill the deer, and with Ohio Penal Industries to process meat from the program.
USDA sharpshooters will bait and kill deer
on public and volunteered private land from December to February, with an option to extend the program into March if needed, according to thecity's deer management website. The program will cost the city around $73,200 maximum.
The deer management program is meant to minimize deer-vehicle collisions, decrease human and deer conflicts and reduce property damage to plants and landscaping in the city, city management assistant Riley Hoover told City Council.
The USDA sharpshooters will shoot deer between dusk and midnight periodically on weekdays, except during Worthington City Schools' winter break. Venison processed from the program will be donated to the Worthington Resource Pantry.
The city identified East Granville Park, Huntley Bowl Park, Linworth Park, Olentangy Parklands – including John Galipault Field, Park Boulevard Park and Perry Park – as the public areas that the sharpshooters may operate on. The city could add new sites later, and not every site will be used every night of the deer management program.
The city will place signs at common entrances to public properties when sharpshooting is occurring. Worthington police officers will accompany the shooters, and spotters and a drone will monitor the area around the operation, according to a Worthington staff memorandum on the deer program.
Two residents who spoke about the deer management plan at the Sept. 8 meeting said they wanted more transparency from the city on when and where the sharpshooting will occur, though they said they generally support the program.
Resident Allan Showalter said the city did not notify him when the shooting would occur last year, but he did hear and see them operating near his home one night.
"I think over a three-month period, residents deserve to know when there will be armed sharpshooters in their backyards," Showalter said.
Resident Amelia Shearer said that Worthington sent out vague notification letters last year to residents who lived near the deer operations.
"[L]etters went out maybe a handful of weeks before it started, and they were very unspecific. It was: 'Over the course of these two months, one of your neighbors will have a sharpshooter in their backyard. And we won't tell you where it is, we won't tell you when it is, just somewhere in the course of these two months.' And that was concerning for a lot of people," Shearer said.
The city will share more information on the program through social media, the city's website, door-to-door fliers, and signage, Hoover told the council at the meeting.
Residents have until Sept. 30 to contact the city and volunteer their private land for the sharpshooter program.
Reporter Nathan Hart can be reached at NHart@dispatch.com, @NathanRHart on X and nathanhart.dispatch.com on Bluesky.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Worthington City Council approves 2nd year of deer sharpshooting program
