This month Missouri continued moving forward in their fight in eliminating feral hogs from the state. The U.S. Forest Service (USFS) announced their decision to allow opportunistic hunting of feral hogs on public land in the Mark Twain National Forest (MTNF) with the use of an unfilled deer or turkey permit during the hunting season. This opportunistic hunting will be effective immediately in the MTNF, it still needs to make its way through the state regulatory processes before it is implemented on MDC land.
Feral Hog Problems
Feral hogs quickly became established in Missouri when individuals would release them for hunting; unfortunately, due to the hogs extremely high reproductive rate, the feral hogs spawned in southern Missouri, now occurring in over 30 counties.
Although it is legal to hunt and kill feral hogs on your private property, it is not recommended due to the fact that eradicating the hogs is more effective when you trap an entire herd at once rather than kill them one at a time. Hunting and killing feral hogs on public property has been illegal unless you are in possession of a hog permit until earlier this December when the USFS announced that they had reviewed thousands of comments on their idea of using unfilled deer and turkey permits on feral hogs.
“We received and reviewed more than a thousand comments from our public outreach around this decision,” stated Tony Crump, Deputy Forest Supervisor for Mark Twain National Forest. “By allowing for opportunistic take during all deer and turkey hunting seasons, we incorporated public feedback to most effectively remove these invasive pigs from Missouri in alignment with the Missouri Feral Hog Elimination Partnership.” [1]
MDC Opportunistic Hunting
After the MTNF announcement, the Conservation of Commission has ordered the Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) to work on a regulation identical to that of the USFS. An identical regulation in MDC controlled lands would allow consistency in the law in lands managed by both the MDC and the USFS, allowing opportunistic hunting during deer and turkey seasons.
“The closure of the Mark Twain National Forest to feral hog hunting is a positive move toward the elimination of this destructive pest from our state,” said MDC Director Sara Parker Pauley. “We have already seen significant progress on public land around Truman and Stockton Reservoirs where the no hunting regulation has been in place since 2016.”
Not only are small groups of feral hogs capable of causing damage to large pieces of land in a single night, but these hogs are also known for caring around several diseases. Swine brucellosis, pseudorabies, trichinosis, PRRS, and leptospirosis are all diseases that feral hogs carry- the reintroduction of these diseases into a domestic population could be deadly to the agricultural industry of Missouri.
“We continue to hear from Missouri farmers and ranchers who have damage to their farmland and are concerned about the animal disease threat feral swine pose,” said Missouri Director of Agriculture Chris Chinn. “Agriculture is critically important to Missouri and our farm families depend on a united front that will protect their livelihood. Feral swine are estimated to have a $1.5 billion impact in the United States today. However, the devastating affects feral swine could have in the event of an animal disease outbreak is immeasurable.”
For the rest of the 2019-2020 deer season, you can legally kill feral hogs in the Mark Twain forest as long as you carry an unfilled deer permit. [2]
MDC will be working to bring this opportunistic take on feral hog hunting to MDC managed lands before 2021.
Notes:
- ^“Missouri Feral Hog Elimination Partnership Responds to Mark Twain Announcement.” Missouri Department of Conservation, 12 Dec. 2019, mdc.mo.gov/newsroom/missouri-feral-hog-elimination-partnership-responds-mark-twain-announcement. (go back ↩)
- ^“Mark Twain National Forest – Land & Resources Management.” 12 Dec. 2019, www.fs.usda.gov/detail/mtnf/landmanagement/?cid=FSEPRD629017. (go back ↩)
