Feral Hogs, State Parks, and the Mark Twain
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Newsletter of the Missouri Parks Association Post Office Box 8531, Kansas City, MO 64114 Volume 37, No. 1 June, 2019 Susan Flader, Editor Feral Hogs, State Parks, and the Mark Twain The struggle to eradicate feral hogs a process that requires weeks of baiting While clearing trails in 2002, Superin- from Missouri is at a critical juncture and monitoring before springing the tendent Jerry Toops came upon a torn- with a public comment period now traps. But hunters and dogs can destroy up glade along the Ozark Trail on open on a US Forest Service proposal the effectiveness of traps by killing a Goggins Mountain, and from a friend to ban hunting of hogs with a farm adjoining the on the Mark Twain park he learned of severe National Forest. Mis- hog damage to pastures too. souri state parks, along After consulting with USDA with other lands both staff and Oklahomans with public and private in long experience with hogs, hog-infested areas of he tried numerous methods the Ozarks, have a lot of killing them, including at stake in the success shooting at night, but he had of the ban. the most success using traps he himself designed, in- It is imperative for stalled, and monitored each state park lovers and morning before work. Over other conservation- the next few years he ists to submit com- trapped some 200 hogs on ments in writing to the Mark Twain by private lands adjoining both the July 23 deadline. Johnson’s and Taum Sauk Parks, since park officials at Feral hogs are a the time were leery of trap- scourge in the Hogs Rooting in a Spring ping on park land. Ozarks and wherever they spread. They multiply rapidly, with sows able few hogs and allowing the rest to scat- Missouri was the first state to try to control hogs through a voluntary to breed at age six months and produce ter and become trap-wary. MDC and partnership of state and federal about 12 piglets a year, and they have USDA trappers have experienced inten- agencies and private landowners. Be- few natural predators. A sounder (social tional interference from hog hunters— cause feral hogs are not legally wildlife group) of hogs can tear up 20-30 acres one trapper on 7 of 11 straight days he or game animals in Missouri, nor are of crops, pasture, or woodland glade in worked. In the process, a culture of hog they confined livestock, they cannot be one night. They love to root and wallow hunting—or hog dogging—is created, regulated statewide by the Department in moist areas like wetlands, fens, exacerbating the problem. marshes, springs and streamsides, the of Conservation (MDC) or Agriculture very places park and conservation stew- In Missouri, hogs began to be a (MDA). An informal partnership, be- ards have worked hard and long to re- problem in the 1990s. Having original- gun in 1999, was strengthened in 2007 store. Hogs are omnivorous, eating ly been brought to the continent as by Gov. Matt Blunt’s Governor’s Feral eggs and young of ground-nesting birds domestic stock by European colonists, Hog Task Force, co-chaired by the di- (like wild turkeys) and other wildlife, free-ranging hogs became ubiquitous; rectors of MDC and MDA with repre- along with berries, roots, nuts, and oth- but they began to die out in the 20th sentatives of other state and federal er human and wildlife foods. They car- century, until recreational hog hunting agencies (including state parks and the ry diseases such as swine brucellosis, gained popularity in states to the south Mark Twain), disease experts, private tularemia, and pseudorabies that can be and in a few pockets in Missouri in landowners and the Conservation Fed- spread to wildlife, domestic livestock, the 1980s and led to intentional (though eration. By 2008 MDC developed a pets and humans. illegal) releases of hogs in order to comprehensive plan to eliminate feral spread the sport to new areas. Feral hogs from state conservation areas us- Hunting of feral hogs is part of the hogs have now been reported in nearly ing multiple methods, including trap- problem. Feral hogs are not native forty counties in Missouri. ping and hunting. Yet hogs continued to wildlife; they are domestic invasives, increase and spread. often released to the wild by people The first state park to report feral who like to hunt hogs with dogs or hog damage was Roaring River make money by guiding others. The around 1990, but Johnson’s Shut-Ins made the most sustained early efforts (See “Feral Hogs” on Page 2) most effective method of reducing hog at control. numbers is by trapping entire sounders, Page 2 The Missouri Parks Association (“Feral Hogs” from Page 1) The experience in Missouri and in neighboring states led MDC in 2016 to ban hog hunt- ing on lands it controls. In states to the south and west— Arkansas, Oklahoma, and the Gulf tier from Florida to Tex- as—with strong hog hunting cultures, hog numbers have mushroomed and are now con- sidered out of control. Texas alone is estimated to have 3 million Feral swine populations in 1982 compared to 2018 hogs. In Tennessee, after 50 years of no legal hog hunting during which feral has been passionately lobbied by a hogs had largely been confined to sev- small number of well-organized hog- hunting enthusiasts to pressure the U.S. eral relatively small areas where they What you can do. had been introduced on private game Forest Service in Washington. Hogs are still being illegally released in preserves and escaped, the state yielded It is critical for large numbers of con- to political pressure in 1999 to allow many areas of the Mark Twain, mostly at night, and spreading from there to servationists and private landowners hog hunting statewide; by 2009, hogs to submit written comments by the had spread statewide (abetted by illegal neighboring lands. Only a strong showing of public support for the July 23 deadline supporting the Mark transport and release), so state officials Twain’s proposal to ban hog hunting Mark Twain’s proposed ban on hog reinstated the hunting ban, concentrated on the forest. Small but well organized hunting will allow it to take effect. on trapping, and began to show success groups of avid hog hunters are work- It is critical for the Mark Twain to ban reducing the populations, leading MDC ing hard to oppose the ban. This is the hog hunting; if they do, national forests to follow suit. time to demonstrate that Missouri con- in other states as well as the Ozark servationists care. The Missouri Feral Hog Partner- National Scenic Riverways and nation- ship issued a statewide strategic plan al wildlife refuges here in Missouri Email comments to the Mark Twain: in 2017 for feral hog elimination. would then likely follow suit. [email protected]. Developed through collaboration among more than thirty state and feder- Meanwhile, the impact of hogs on Mail comments to: Forest Supervisor, al agencies and organizations, including state parks continues. Parks with Attn: Feral Swine Comment, Mark the Missouri Farm Bureau and corn, known hog damage—in addition to Twain National Forest, 401 Fair- soybean, cattle, and pork associations, Johnson’s Shut-Ins, Taum Sauk, Roar- grounds Road, Rolla, MO 65401. the Conservation Federation and many ing River and Stockton—include of its affiliates, the Missouri Forest Hawn, Elephant Rocks, St. Francois, Products Association, the L-A-D Foun- Washington, Sam Baker, and Wap- dation, and several rural water and papello. Park lovers will recognize health associations, it prioritizes public these as parks with extraordinary natu- education, banning or discouraging of ral resources, including carefully re- public hunting and illegal hog releases, stored glades, prairies, woodlands, and more coordinated trapping in priori- fens, wetlands, and high-quality ty zones. The greatest success to date streams attractive to hogs. All are in has been in the Stockton, Pomme, and proximity to units of the Mark Twain Truman reservoir area, where hog hunt- and groups of active hog hunters and ing is prohibited on state parks, MDC, hence in danger of continued hog and Corps of Engineers lands and there damage despite vigilant trapping by is no Mark Twain land. park staff and professional federal trappers, and there are other parks The weakest link in the plan has similarly situated that are also in dan- been the 1.5 million-acre Mark Twain ger. A spring 2019 survey of known National Forest, with eight non- sites of the federally threatened and contiguous units throughout the state endangered Mead’s Milkweed, Ozarks. Mark Twain officials have which has its most viable populations cooperated with the Missouri partner- on glades in the St. Francois Moun- tains Natural Area (Taum Sauk), ship from the start, but have not felt 2018 feral hog distribution (solid) and able to prohibit hog hunting on the for- found that 20-25 percent of the known areas from which hogs have been est owing to lack of support from the Mead’s sites were impacted by hogs in eliminated (open shapes) state’s congressional delegation, which the past year; one previously flagged site was devoid of any Mead’s stems. Page 3 The Missouri Parks Association Legislative Session Baffles Park Supporters This was the year the legislative session was projected by finally passed. The bill included a Rock Island Trail State State Capitol watchers to return to more like normal, ex- Park Endowment Fund that had had a strongly positive cept that no one seems to know what is normal.