Students from Ellis Middle School proposed making the city parks tobacco free at the Parks and Recreation Board meeting Wednesday night.

The students are members of WORD (We Oppose and Resist Drugs), and took on the project in conjunction with Karen Ferguson, who works with the Public Health office. She said kids participating in sporting events at the parks are getting the wrong message from adults.

"What the kids see is adults that are supporting and watching them play, but also they're smoking," she said.

The group gave a presentation about the effects from second-hand smoke and accidental ingestion of cigarette butts on youth. They said cities such as Owatonna and Rochester have gone tobacco free, and they asked the board to help push a similar ordinance through in Austin. They then showed the board sacks full of cigarette butts they had cleaned up at various parks throughout the city.

"You couldn't take two steps without finding about 15 cigarette butts," sixth grader Caroline Brown said after the meeting.

The students presented two options. Their first choice would be banning all tobacco use in city parks, but as an alternative they would at least like to see tobacco banned at all youth events.

The state organization Tobacco Free Youth Recreation would supply signs explaining the ordinance free of charge.

The board thanked the students for their presentation and agreed to consider the matter at their next meeting.

Also in the meeting, Nature Center Director Larry Dolphin asked the board to give him the go-ahead to arrange a hunt at the Nature Center to control the deer population.

Any proposal would have to be approved by the city council, but Dolphin wanted to know he had the board's support before pursuing the matter further.

Dolphin said a population of 75 to 100 deer are eating down trees and flowers before they have a chance to grow.

The population will not change dramatically unless a hunt is organized to take out some of the does because the deer do not leave the safety of the Nature Center.

He gave the board information from River Bend Nature Center in Faribault. They have had a number of hunts to thin the population, and it has been successful, Dolphin said.

He said a bow hunt is the best option for Austin.

"A bow hunt is probably the only way to go just from the standpoint of safety," he said.

Dolphin will return to the board next month with a proposal outlining the specifics of a hunt.

Matt Merritt can be reached at 434-2214 or by email at matt.merritt@austindailyherald.com