Metropark wildlife management rule OK'd in Milford

The Milford Township Board of Trustees has approved an ordinance amendment to allow Huron-Clinton Metropolitan Authority (HMCA) officials to use weapons for wildlife management purposes inside Kensington Metropark.

The amendment was made to the township ordinance related to hunting.

The ordinance will now state that “Unless otherwise necessary in connection with Metropark wildlife management practices, hunting for any wild animal or wild bird with a firearm or bow and arrow and their discharge is prohibited within the defined and posted boundaries of the properties belonging to and under control of the Huron-Clinton Metropark authority designated as the Kensington Metropark.”

Township Clerk Holly Brandt said that metropark officials practice culling, especially culling of deer during the winter, to help control Kensington’s animal population, but that the township ordinance didn’t reflect that.

“We needed to put this in so that they can do their everyday job,” she said.

For several years now, Kensington Metropark has utilized sharpshooters to manage the deer population in the park, including last January.

The HCMA has been using lethal methods to manage deer since 1999, and in 2001 they approved a long-term deer management policy employing organized hunts and sharpshooting to cull the deer population in several metroparks. No deer hunts were conducted during the 2007-08 season because the metroparks’ deer populations were under control.

The HCMA usually asks for volunteers with pre-qualified backgrounds from specific organizations to partake in controlled deer harvests at their parks. Volunteers are brought to specific areas in the morning and are picked up at the end of the day. All volunteers have to have a hunting license, and all rules of the deer hunting season as specified by the state are followed.