Save for those who operate their own private wilds behind fences, nobody worked especially hard to bring back free-range deer to Ohio.
Yes, there was a point when there was dearth of deer in the state.
Historically, timbered Ohio held numerous deer, though probably not as many as it does now. The whitetail population, however, by the dawn of the 20th century was all but wiped out by hunting and the felling of forests that had covered as much as 95% of the landscape.
The 10% of the tree-covered land that remained by the early 1900s didn’t offer sufficient refuge or sustenance. Over ensuing decades, however, the trees returned as marginal farmland was abandoned. And with the woodland came the drifting deer.
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About 30% of Ohio is timbered today. Some habitats mix woodlots and farm plots, a combination that almost coddles deer.
Nowadays, deer sightings are routine, even within residential areas, to the point of being troublesome. Deer devour about 4 to 8 pounds of plant material a day, meaning hostas and other ornamental fodder that require special handling to maintain.
Hunters can’t really get at citified deer, mainly because there’s no fail-safe way to hunt them. Urban counties including Franklin, Hamilton, Lucas, Cuyahoga and Summit have four-deer limits under Ohio Division of Wildlife regulations that can only gnaw at the edges of the deer population.
It’s not always apparent to hunters how scads of deer gamboling on the landscape might not be terrific, but one thing that happens when deer are forced to compete for nutrition is shrinkage.
Ohio deer records show that just six of the top 25 non-typical racks (ie., racks that are asymetrical) were taken during the last 10 years. A mere four of the top 25 typical (symetrical) racks were recorded in the recent decade.
Those numbers might not prove the biggest bucks are sparser. Still, the record for the largest typical rack was established in 1986 and tied in 2004. The largest non-typical record has stood since 2000.
Even considering a potential state record was disqualified a few seasons back, those are longstanding standards in an era of trail cams that reveal almost everything that stalks the landscape.
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Mike Tonkovich, a deer specialist since retired from the wildlife division, warned decades ago that, based on measurements already in hand, the number of really big deer would decline as whitetail numbers skyrocketed.
Whether shrinkage has actually come to pass might merit further investigation. What can hardly be disputed, though, is that some natural areas hold enough deer to damage native plants.
The number of whitetails killed using deer damage control permits is on the rise. Those are issued to landowners who incur, among other things, crop damage or tree degradation. From a little more than 2,000 killed in 2019 the number climbed to almost 6,000 in 2024 before dipping slightly a year ago.
Also related to herd growth is a substantial increase in the number of cases of disease spread by deer-bourne ticks. Among the most recognized is Lyme disease, which is conveyed primarily, but not exclusively, by black-legged ticks in Ohio.
The number of confirmed Lyme disease cases in the state increased from around 100 in 2016 and 2017 to 554 in 2022, to 1,301 in 2023, to 1,788 in 2024 and to 2,819 a year ago.
Ohio’s deer harvest numbers, meanwhile, stood at fewer than 200,000 annually from 2013 though 2021 after regulations were adjusted to bring down the deer population. Starting in 2022, the harvest increased annually to near-historic numbers that indicate deer quantities have rebounded bigly.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio's deer population may be growing out of control, here's the cost
