POWELL — The number of stags on the street may soon diminish if a proposed suburban deer management plan makes its way to council for approval.
Powell Police Chief Ron Sallows gave a presentation to the Powell Operations Committee on Tuesday evening about nearby Worthington’s deer management plan.
Their multi-year plan included resident surveys, public education initiatives and targeted deer removal operations conducted by sharpshooters from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The presentation comes as Powell officials try to determine whether the city’s growing deer population has become a public safety and quality-of-life issue significant enough to warrant action.
From January 2024 through May 2026, Powell police received 77 deer-related calls, including 12 vehicle crashes and two aggressive deer incidents in June 2025.
“Why are deer populations thriving in suburban environments?” Sallows said during the meeting. “The lack of predators contributes to growth and residential landscaping provides abundant food sources.”
What worked in Worthington?
Sallows said Worthington began formally studying the issue in 2023 by creating a deer task force and collecting resident survey responses throughout 2024.
The survey found:
- 91.7% reported seeing deer daily or weekly
- 71% of survey respondents wanted the deer population reduced.
- 63% reported deer-related damages or expenses
- Residents suffered nearly $1.5 million in property damage costs and more than $200,000 in injury/veterinary expenses.
Worthington City Council officially approved the plan in January 2025, and conducted targeted removal operations in January and February of 2026.
“They expect that they’re going to have to have several years of this deer maintenance program before they get into a maintenance phase,” Sallows said.
Sharpshooters from the U.S. Department of Agriculture removed 100 deer during the inaugural targeted deer removal operations, according to the 2026 Deer Management Report.
The USDA officials conducted the operation over eight nights across designated private properties and two public sites — Olentangy Parklands and Walnut Grove Cemetery — with no incidents involving people, pets, or property.
“They used suppressed firearms, they used highly frangible ammunition, so that means the bullet that comes from the weapon, when it hits something, breaks up and dissipates, rather than going through the deer and then traveling into something else,” Salllows said. “They were also using elevated shooting positions.”
The operations team also used heat-signature drones to track targets and ensure no other animals or persons were in the area.
Worthington processed and donated over 4,200 pounds of venison to the Worthington Resource Pantry.
In total, the target removal operation, none of the survey and preliminary work, cost over $119,000.
Worthington’s program also involved implementing a no feeding ordinance, prohibiting residents from feeding the deer, and online education about deer behavior and deer-resistant agriculture.
What would a Powell program look like?
Sallows emphasized Tuesday that Powell has not decided whether it will pursue a similar program.
“The questions that the community would have to determine are: what deer population level is acceptable? What role should the public education play? How should municipalities measure success? And then what balances should exist between lethal and non-lethal methods,” Sallows said.
Powell also has a prohibited hunting ordinance, which would need to be updated to include an exception for the maintenance program.
City Manager Andy White noted Worthington invested significant money upfront to understand the size of its deer population and evaluate potential solutions.
“We’re just at the beginning of this,” White said.
He also suggested Powell could eventually work with Liberty Township because some neighborhoods overlap jurisdictionally. White said he has not yet spoken with township officials, but is working to establish a potential working group.
Committee member and Councilman David Lester questioned if the administrative work and cost to start the program is worth the outcome of a reduced deer population.
“That’s a half a million dollars in four years. That’s a lot of taxpayer money, and then you throw on the cost of the surveys of Liberty Township, the time elements to take that,” Lester said.
White pointed out that Upper Arlington began researching a deer program and ultimately determined not to move forward with strategic removal, which could be the case for Powell, meaning less money spent.
Sallows said the department has drone technology with thermal imaging, so the department could get some initial population numbers to better understand the problem.
He also said residents can report deer-related complaints to the department for data collection via the non-emergency dispatch number at 614-885-3374.
Residents say deer damage is a growing issue
Committee member and Councilman Leif Carlson said he had already heard positive feedback from some residents simply because the city had begun publicly discussing the issue.
“I got some feedback from residents that were fairly positive that the city was looking at this,” he said. “They commended us for actually just having it on a public meeting agenda.”
Denise Wible, who has lived in the Olentangy Ridge neighborhood since 1995, estimates she’s spent $30,000 on deer management to prevent them from destroying her landscaping, despite implementing alleged deer-safe plants.
Wible said she frequently sees large herds of 10 or more deer roaming her neighborhood.
“I have netting and posts in front of my bushes trying to keep them from eating the bushes. It’s just a never ending battle,” she said.
“And if you came to my front yard and stood in my front bedroom window, you could definitely shoot deer every night because they’re laying in my front yard.”
Now that the proposal has come before the committee, city staff will address committee questions and concerns and the plan will be presented to council at a later date.
