5,036 pigs killed on Santa Cruz Island

[betelgeuse]

Ventura County Star

Thousands of wild pigs on Santa Cruz Island that destroyed plants and dug up Chumash archaeological sites over the years have been killed in one of the largest pig eradication projects in the world.

Officials announced Tuesday that 5,036 pigs were systematically killed in a $5 million, two-year effort to restore the island to its natural state...


The whole article is here
http://www.venturacountystar.com/news/2007...recovery-after/

 

[Lurediver]

QUOTE (betelgeuse @ Aug 29 2007, 09:31 AM)

Ventura County Star

Thousands of wild pigs on Santa Cruz Island that destroyed plants and dug up Chumash archaeological sites over the years have been killed in one of the largest pig eradication projects in the world.

Officials announced Tuesday that 5,036 pigs were systematically killed in a $5 million, two-year effort to restore the island to its natural state...


The whole article is here
http://www.venturacountystar.com/news/2007...recovery-after/

Who's going to bet someone will release a boat load of pigs on that island during the night?

Does anyone remember Lake Davis?

 

[Shot]

I am positive they didn't get them all. Just one reproductive couple will make that place a zoo in 2-3 years. I wonder what measure they have taken to prevent this (if possible).

 

[MJB]

We will see in a few years........Gota boat?
Gota love our elected officials.

 

[SDHNTR]

A huge improvement? Call me an ignorant bassturd but I liked the place a hell of a lot better 15 years ago when the pigs and goats were tearing the hell out of the place.

 

[rke]

I could've done that job for only one million. And It wouldn't have taken me 2 years either.....

 

[Glass eye]

That's $992.85 per pig.

 

[hogassasen]

WOW! Now that the pigs are gone and I know we ONLY had to pay 5 mil. to some other country to get rid of them for us. I sure as hell going to sleep better tonite. Makes me sick! If they had to get rid of them so bad. Why not let us Americans do it? Way to go elected officials.

 

[rodneyshishido]

Your state government is about as bright as mine is. The Hawaii State Government and Maui County funds Watershed Management Groups to control wild pigs and cattle. This is done in areas closed off to hunters. I do not understand why taxpayers would want their tax dollars to pay for a service that would be performed by a user group for free!

 

[Rancho Loco]

Feral pigs, goats, and cats are invasive little monsters, and highly destructive to island ecosystems all over the world.

I applaud the effort, and suggest that any hunter who, like me, considers himself to be the ultimate conservationalist rethink that claim if they feel this was some sort of waste.

Pigs are a blast to hunt, and great to eat, but let's not forget exactly what they are.

 

[Speckmisser]

No disrespect intended to anyone, but as we've had this discussion before...

The goal here is total eradication. Sport hunters cannot and will not effectively eradicate a species. This is extermination, not hunting. Killing everything, big, little, wet sows, babies...the works. It also means shooting from the air, shooting at night, and trapping. I know some pretty good hunters, but the best of them would never be able to be this thorough, even if they had the stomach for killing every pig and piglet they could find.

Regardless of how anyone feels about the long term goals or success of the program, professional exterminators are the only option for a job like this.

As far as hiring someone from another country to do the job...

 

[Rancho Loco]

Hurry up, Lurediver - I've taken the day off, and I need to take a nap.

 

[Lurediver]

5 million is a waste.

 

[Rancho Loco]

Not if it's in my pocket.

Time for a snooze.

 

[tholihan]

Well, as we are all thinking, the state officials could have made a lot of money instead of spending $5 million of our tax dollars. Most of us would have been glad to pay to go shoot those pigs. At $200 a pig, that's over a mllion bucks to put back into that eco system. They would have recieved the same result of eradicating the pigs.

I think that as California residents, and paying hunters we should have first right to shoot those pigs - and the hogs too!

 

[Speckmisser]

Tholihan, go back up and read what I said earlier...

Paying, recreational/sport hunters would not have killed 5000+ hogs. That's about seven hogs a day, every day, for two years straight. Of that seven hogs per day, a high percentage would have to have been tiny little weanlings or smaller. I'm not talking "meat pigs"... I'm talking two-pounders and such.

Likewise, recreational hunters wouldn't have the wherewithal to locate and eradicate all of the hogs on those islands. A few days of that kind of pressure and the remaining hogs would be out of reach of all but the most hardcore hunters. They'd soon become completely nocturnal.

The impact of the number of hunters required to harvest 5000 animals over two years would be worse than the impact of the hogs, rooting and eating.

Finally, even IF recreational "sport" hunters had perpetrated that slaughter, you can bet PETA would be all over the "bloodthirsty savages" on the front page of newspapers and magazines across the country... our image as sportsmen would take a beating like nothing you've ever seen. You think they made propaganda out of the mountain lion fiasco? The image of the ethical sportsman would be set back a hundred years.

You can agree or disagree with the decision to remove the pigs from the islands. That's one thing. But the method employed to do the job was absolutely the right way to get it done...efficiently and safely, with minimal impact to the future of sport hunting in this state.

 

[hogassasen]

Well i'm not going to debate on weather it was the right way or the wrong way to do it but paying 5 MILLION. Comeon. And to another county to boot. If its our money they are spending I say give it to an Amerian company. I am the last guy to get into a tissy about this kind of stuff but we pay alot of tax money to have these guys spend it in such a matter. I am sure their was a better way of taking care of this.

 

[wmidbrook]

That's a pretty darned expensive science project with questionable benefits at best IMO. I will sleep better knowing that no college intern will find a bird of prey or vulture dead of lead poisoning...maybe a few dozen or more from starvation until some sort of (likely non-indigenous) vermin population explodes.

I would have a hard time believing there are no non-native plant species. Makes me wonder whether any scientific results will be pure or worth a hoot.

...just another expensive labratory for ivy league and standford kids to frolic around in I suppose. I guess one day they might even see fit to allow a few backpackers or tourists to take a few pictures or do an over nighter or two. Yeah, a grand eco-tourism destination in the making I'd say.

 

[WildlifeBranch]

It's national park service and The Nature Conservancy land. Your federal NPS dollars and Private entities paid for it, not the state; but some of you don't seem to let facts get in the way....

speckmisser is correct- hunters wouldn't/couldn't have worked hard enough to eradicate these pigs. the kiwi's probably were the lowest bidder.

Effort is to save/protect/restore native species on the island; hunters/conservationists shouldn't have a problem with that....

I'll say it again it is not the state. CDFG did have a hunt out there at the beginning when it was still easy hunting. TNC cooperated and allowed it. Last time I was there when this was being initiated, the pigs were bags-of-bones anyway.

NPS also plans to eliminate axis/fallow deer on Pt. Reyes Natl. Seashore. more to come on that.

 

[wmidbrook]

I am not convinced that the Nature Conservacy does more net good than harm for hunters. They don't allow hunting (at least that I am aware of), but they have provided and improved lots of habitat for wildlife.

Anyway, the DFG did offer one heck of a hunt for those lucky enough to draw a chance at the opportunity to hunt on Santa Cruz Island before the eradication began. Hats off for sure.

Bottom-line from purely a hunter's perspective....this is just one less place for hunters to hunt in the state of CA. Seems there is more opportunity lost than gain in recent times.

The campaign to eradicate sure involved a lot of hype..."save the fox", "save the archeological sites from untold damage", "save the soil from rototilling" and on and on and on...