Metro Parks, Serving Summit County, will conduct its annual bow-hunting lottery July 26.
Each permit will allow up to three adults and three juveniles to hunt with a bow and arrow or crossbow as part of the park district’s white-tailed deer management program.
Bow hunters chosen in the lottery will be allowed access to 10 park areas in 2013-14. The areas are:
• Pond Brook Conservation Area in Twinsburg Township.
• Columbia Run and Wetmore conservation areas in Boston Township.
• Waldo Semon Conservation Area in Boston and Northfield Center townships.
• Riding Run Conservation Area in Cuyahoga Falls and Bath, Richfield and Boston townships.
• Two areas within Furnace Run Metro Park in Richfield Township.
• The TenBroeck Conservation Area in Hudson and Streetsboro.
• A conservation area in Silver Creek Metro Park in Norton.
• A conservation area in Clinton.
Lottery forms are available at www.summitmetroparks.org.
They are also available at three locations:
• Gander Mountain, 2695 Creekside Drive, Twinsburg, 330-405-2999.
• Hadley’s Sports Center, 5675 Manchester Road, New Franklin, 330-882-6060.
• The Marksman, 3017 Barber Road, Norton, 330-745-2000.
Applications must be postmarked by July 18 and be mailed to: Archery Program, P.O. Box 5250, Akron, OH 44334.
Lottery winners will be notified Aug. 2. Individuals named on permits must pass an archery test.
Two box blinds will be installed for hunters in wheelchairs. Wheelchair-using hunters may live outside of Summit County. All other archery participants must be Summit County residents.
For wheelchair details, contact Eric Fitch at 330-753-5789 or 330-475-1473 or efitch@summitmetroparks.org.
Up to three hunting permits will be assigned per location.
All areas involved are remote and have limited public access.
The hunting season for archers is Sept. 28 through Feb. 2.
Those selected must comply with park district and state rules.
In five previous years, archers took a total of 301 deer.
Sharpshooters have killed an additional 1,735 deer in the parks since 2004. The venison has been donated to the Akron-Canton Regional Foodbank.
The park district has killed deer because of the threat of their growing numbers to plants and other animals.