I grew up in Brighton, we had 10 acres across the road from Kensington Metropark’s nature study area. Everybody and their brothers uncle dropped their pests over there, the population of coons and possums per acre is higher than anywhere in the state I think.
(Grampa owned 40 acres that bordered it across from us, we also had the best deer hunting land in lower Michigan as well thanks to the park’s woods and golf course... :-)
My dad was the Chief ranger at Stoneycreek Metropark from about 1980 - '93. Myself and a few other guys used to play their golf course every other Sunday and one year there was an outbreak of that distemper virus that coons get. One Sunday we saw 6 coons wandering listlessly on the course and a couple on the park's roadway.
Dad said he and the other rangers would shoot them when they came upon them then have the maintenance guys haul them away.
Evidently it's cyclical and that's nature's way of controlling the coons when their populations grow out of control.......