MIKE BRAUN Volunteers are key to Ravenna hunt

If not for a dedicated corps of volunteers, it's unlikely that hunters who take part in the controlled deer hunt at the Ravenna Training and Logistics Site would be as successful as they are.
Saturday was the final hunt day for the RTLS's 50/50 antlered/antlerless hunt. Eight hunts -- only two of which were 50/50 for antlered/antlerless deer -- were arranged this year between the Ohio Army National Guard, which operates the RTLS, formerly known as the Ravenna Arsenal, and the Ohio Department of Natural Resources Division of Wildlife.
A final hunt day will take place Dec. 13 for antlerless deer only.
Those who give their time to help hunters try to bag a deer have to get up and be at the 2,000-acre site as early as 4 a.m. in most cases.
Greeted at the gate
As the lottery-selected hunters arrive, they are greeted at the gate and ushered into one of the guard buildings for a brief safety orientation and are shown where they will be placed for the day.
The Guard outlines specific areas on the RTLS grounds where hunters are assigned. Volunteer escorts guide the hunters to these areas and either direct them or allow the hunters to try their luck on their own.
Helen Myers of Deerfield and Estelle Decker of Ravenna are among the volunteers the hunters see first.
"We've been doing this a long time," Myers said. "I used to hunt deer here and Estelle used to work here," she said.
"This is a good place to hunt," Myers said. "It is very efficient, and they really do a good job."
Myers said that the hunt and activities connected to it have settled down a bit since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack. That year the controlled hunt was closed to the public and only military personnel were allowed to hunt.
Some volunteers such as Myers and Decker handle work on the prodigious paperwork involved in this hunt. Mikey "The Cook" Yaniglos of Youngstown cooks for the volunteers. Yaniglos, 80, is a former steel worker who has been donating his time at the RTLS since 1969.
The main reason for the hunt is to help thin the deer herd at the RTLS. OHARNG experts, in connection with the DOW, set up specific harvest numbers to keep the site's herd in check.
How they help
Lt. Col. Tom Tadsen, commander of the RTLS, said the volunteers help the hunters to have a more successful and safer hunt.
"The civilian success rate is usually about 20 [percent] to 25 percent," he said. "This year it's over 30 percent."
Tadsen connected that success directly to the use of volunteers. He said volunteer escorts are usually kept in the same specific assigned areas, allowing them a chance to learn those areas and guide their assigned hunters better.
"They can get familiar with an area and can push their hunters to the best spots," he said.
The success rate for the escorts is lower, Tadsen said. "They are here for the hunters, not for themselves," he said. "And they have to abide by the same rules."
Escorts such as Paul Fata of Campbell take their duties seriously. Fata, who has been an escort for four years, was in charge of four hunters. "I try to keep my hunters in their areas and direct them to a good position to get a deer," he said.
Better deer
Mike Sliwinski of Girard, another escort at the RTLS, said he has seen the quality of the deer herd at the site improve in the six years he had been guiding.
Sliwinski, who bagged a nice 9-point buck Saturday, said he has seen a lot more quality deer in recent years.
"Look at these two deer," he said, pointing to two well-fed and muscular bucks, one he harvested and one shot by a hunter he was escorting, John Martinek of Warren. "These are quality deer."
Tadsen said that the volunteers put in a lot of time without thought of being repaid. Some do get a chance to hunt, he said, but many don't even bring a weapon.
"Aside from the eight hunt days they are required to be here, there are also two to three training days and several other days where they can come in and mark areas," Tadsen explained.
"They put in a heck of a lot of personal time," he said. "We value our volunteers."
braun@vindy.com