HogWars USDA Implements Cost Share Program to Help Alabama Farmers Battle Feral Hogs BY RAY “TOONEY� HILL
There’s a war taking place across America between feral hogs and land managers. Feral hogs are an invasive species that cause economic, health and habitat destruction. There are currently nine million feral hogs in the United States, and that number is growing fast. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), land managers are fighting this war that has now spread from 17 to 39 states. Texas is ground zero with the largest population of feral hogs, but the problem is concentrated largely throughout the Southeastern United States. In 2018, the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources reported feral hogs in all 67 counties. Feral hogs are a real threat to all agriculture, and we deal with it every day. Experts at the University of Georgia estimated feral hogs annually caused land managers $2.5 billion worth of damages mostly by destroying crops, affecting livestock, and destroying native plants and habitats. Feral hogs not only de-
stroy, they carry diseases. Feral hogs host more than 40 diseases affecting domesticated livestock, wildlife and humans. The feral hog invasion is a real economic problem for land managers everywhere. The feral hog problem has grown so much that the government has intervened across parts of the U.S. to help land managers stop the invasion and reduce their impact. The federal government, in partnerships with states and local agencies, has recently spent more than $30 million annually to fight the feral hog invasion. But without the right strategy, land managers will continue to lose the war, and the invasion and its destruction will continue to escalate. The question is: How can the feral hog invasion be stopped? According to Webster, an invasion or invading means to enter as the enemy and nothing could be truer about feral hog invasions. To stop the invasion, the experts agree that land managers need two critical tools. December 2020
39
