The Department of Natural Resources closed the dog park after getting an anonymous tip. A dog that spent time at the park showed symptons of canine parvovirus. Sometimes parvovirus can be fatal to dogs if they’re not vaccinated. Department spokesman Mark Bruce says the dog park was quickly disinfected.

“Any toys that were left in the park, we threw those away and we disinfected with a spray the fences, the chairs, the areas the dogs could run and jump.” Says Bruce.

State veterinarian Tony Forshey says his investigators found no evidence of parvovirus in feces found on park grounds. But, Forshey praised the Department of Natural Resources for temporarily shuttering the park.

“Certainly this is a very appropriate safeguard that ODNR did in closing that park down until we get all the epidemiological investigation done.” Says Forshey.

Canine parvovirus is highly contagious for dogs. It cannot be transferred from dogs to people.

As it stands now, a hunter can kill up to 18 deer in one year with the combination of muzzleloaders, shotgun, and archery seasons. ODNR wants to cut that to nine in the 2013-2014 season, while also instituting local bag limits instead of the regional limits is now uses.

The proposed rule changes would do away with both the bonus shotgun hunting weekend that usually follows the week-long hunt, and the early muzzleloader season offered at three state parks in the fall.

The changes were proposed by ODNR on Wednesday, and will be voted on in April after several townhall meetings in March.

The proposed changes come as state wildlife officials report 21,555 deer killed during Ohio’s muzzleloader hunt last month. That’s a 12 percent increase over the 2012 muzzleloader hunt.

Two weeks ago, an Athens county woman chained herself to equipment at the site of a deep-injection well where drilling waste water is disposed of. This week, a Maryland man was charged with criminal trespass for chaining himself to a gate at a disposal well in Trumbull County.

The activists contend that this waste is so dangerous, it should be disposed of differently. But Ohio natural resources officials say they’re not allowed to make that change. Click the play button above to hear more from both sides.

But officials at the Ohio Department of Natural Resources say there’s nothing to worry about.

Click the play button to hear more from both sides.

But the positions are being created on the expectation of increased revenue.

Department of Natural Resources spokeswoman Heidi Henzel-Evans says taking the number of inspectors from 30 to 90 will be funded by increased revenue from the state’s severance tax on oil and natural gas drillers.

Hetzel-Evans says traditional vertical well drilling has decreased in recent months, but shale drilling is still booming.

“In the year 2013-2014, where we’ll see more activity in the shale formations, we’ll have many more boots on the grounds to address any issues related to those larger operations.”

Hetzel-Evans says there are now about 54,000 oil and gas wells around the state. She says only 65 of those are in the Utica Shale region, but that number could reach several hundred by the end of the year.

State legislators okayed the idea last year, and drilling regulators have just unveiled some proposed guidelines for drilling operations.

Click the play button above to more how the proposed guidelines are already causing controversy.

At a boat ramp near state park headquarters, Jim Kohler is winching his 21-foot sailboat “Obsession” onto a trailer. The thick green algae in Grand Lake St. Marys is so bad he wants to protect the boat’s paint from being stained.

“Well I think it needs a good power washing,” Kohler says. “I’m going to go wash it and let it sit in dry dock for a few weeks.”

Dozens of other boats sit in slips at the marina floating on a thick green mat of algae. Rebecca and Joe Herzog say they’ve been vacationing at the lake for 20 years and they’ve never seen it like this.

“I’m just taking a picture of the algae. It’s really sad,” says Rebecca Herzog.

“It’s pretty bad. Up the road at the beach it’s nothing but green,” says Joe Herzog. “It’s horrible.”

“I took a piece of a stick and scraped it and it’s just like sludge. It’s just nasty,” says Rebecca.

The waves washing ashore look more like green latex paint than lake water. Plus there’s the overwhelming odor of dying algae that blows through the almost empty campgrounds and into the cities of Celina and St. Marys. The odor – which smells like manure – was enough to cause camper Carl Wallace to reconsider his favorite pastime.

“The only thing I do is fish but I don’t think I’m even going to do that this time. It smells pretty bad,” Wallace says.

The algae problem is not new to the lake, it’s happened in years past. Runoff from farms in the area has polluted the lake with nutrients like phosphorus which cause the algae blooms. Signs used to warn visitors not to touch surface scum. Now they warn against coming into contact with the water altogether says Craig Morton, the park superintendent.

“One of the toxins that this new type of algae produces had a level of nine parts per billion and they don’t really know at what point that it’s dangerous so the EPA and the Department of Health decided to err on the side of caution and put up the water quality advisory,” Morton says.

There are different ideas on how to kill the algae. One of the most promising, says Morton, is to dose the lake with alum. “In theory what it’s supposed to do is tie up the phosphorous; sink the phosphorous to the bottom, then there’s no phosphorous to feed the algae, supposedly the algae would then die and go away and this could buy us anywhere from 8 to 10 years,” Morton says.

But people who earn their livings from lake tourism want something done now. Earlier this month, at a meeting of the Lake Improvement Association, residents listened to state officials explain the complexity of the problem. Marina and campground owner Bill Goodwin says he stood up, made a brief statement and walked out.

“I’m madder than hell and I want something done, and I left and they applauded me,” Goodwin says. Two marinas have gone out of business along Grand Lake. Part of declining boat sales has to do with the poor economy. But on a day in July when there might be a hundred boats on the water there are almost none in sight.

“Last year you could picnic you could fish you could go boating without coming in contact with the water but this year with the smell it’s not even something you want to be close to,” says Donna Grube.

Grube is executive director of the local convention and visitors bureau. She says the algae is taking its toll on the local economy. In a good year, tourism would bring in $150 million to the area. She says revenues have declined as the lake’s problems have worsened.

“We have looked for help and it hasn’t been there. So folks have sort of taken it into their own hands to try to find some solutions. And thankfully the Ohio EPA, the Ohio Department of Natural Recourses, the governor’s office, they now see the severity of this problem and have also come to help,” Grube says.

Grube says it’s too early in the season to know what kind of economic hit tourism has taken this year.