Oregon officials hope to eradicate wild pigs. Blame CA for the problem

[spectr17]

Boom goes the hog population.

http://www.beaumontenterprise.com/n...cials-hope-to-eradicate-wild-pigs-1373667.php

 

[FoCoHugh]

Sounds like we all need to plan a field trip soon!

 

[Mr. Luckypants]

I sure hope they don't classify them as "game" animals like here in Kalifornia and charge $20 per tag.

 

[527varmint]

Pigs are just another cash crop! If the farm gets ruined from pigs you charge 1,000 bucks a head and put some hunters on the pigs. There is no way I would remove pigs from my land unless I was a farmer. Fact is that most people owning land in oregon are TREE HUGGING HIPPIES. Those tree huggers start to cry if they even see a Red Rider BB gun. Let alone trapping and killings hogs on their own land.

My main concern is the way pigs wallow in streams and stir up the silt. This could have some really bad effects on what few salmon there are. I assume the hogs are located near the Rogue River drainage. They just blew up the dam in 09 making it the second river in the west with no dams on it. If the pigs get in the water shed they better start arial gunning and trapping to protect the fish.

 

[RIFLEMAN]

527varmint,

Fact is that most people owning land in oregon are TREE HUGGING HIPPIES. Those tree huggers start to cry if they even see a Red Rider BB gun. Let alone trapping and killings hogs on their own land.

That's about as bold and inaccurate a generalization as I have ever heard. Like many other western states, Oregon does indeed suffer from an infestation of non-native invasive species that take over the local ecology ...the species is called Californians. However, many of the owners of the tracts of significant size are native to Oregon and have pragmatic and logical sensibilities when it comes to land, wildlife, and hunting.

Whether or not your claim is true, at least their wildlife management agency has the sense and ecological integrity to take the gloves off when dealing with feral hogs. Our DFG effectively lacks both.

 

[527varmint]

Ok maybe not MOST of the people but there are a substantial number of bay area transplants in western oregon. They are unlikely to start killing animals if it is on their land. It could make control harder.

 

[biseger]

Kill the pig to save the salmon. What a croc of BS. This hole silt killing salmon is a load of crap bringing down our economy. Any body remotlly associated with dirt work can attest to the treehunger laws flooding in bogging down our state from wasted millions of dollars in Cal trans BS and generall taxing on any construction site. The salmon have bread in rivers inidated by mothers natures sediment sence the beginning of time. Dams are one thing to the salmon but silt, that is a load of tree hugging hippey BS.

 

[REM3006]

Oregon land owners should send invatation to all California hunters. That will solve their problem. :mooning:

 

[WildlifeBranch]

From 2006:

http://extension.oregonstate.edu/news/release/2006/04/invasive-pigs-moving-oregon

"Feral pigs are often introduced into new areas by humans who plan to return and hunt them at a later time, Coblentz said, adding that "the majority of feral pigs in Oregon have been kicked out of the back of a pickup truck." This manner of scattered distribution could explain the animals' recent appearance in central Oregon around the towns of Prineville and Madras, areas Coblentz said were not traditionally thought of as habitable for the pigs"


All the blame on CA is unwarranted. One could equally blame whoever in OR wanted the pigs up there (assuming they were brought in from CA).

The big difference for the pig-bomb-hog-wild theatrics that are currently making the news as it relates to feral pigs in many states is that it is new; but it is old-hat to CA where wild pigs have been around for decades. One exception here is SD County where they are new, and all of us are working to try and implement plans to keep them from getting established-- we do not need wild pigs everywhere in CA, and CDFG would prefer to see native species and native systems persist (such as deer in SD County chaparral habitats) than wild pigs. Pigs were made a game mammal before there was any ecological concern regarding their impacts.

Pigs were identified as a "Big Game" mammal decades ago here by the Legislature. It will take the Legislature to change it. DFG cannot/could not change pigs to a nongame species. I admit that the revenue from wild pigs is a consideration. Right now, it means about $800,000/yr into the newly established Big Game account. We no longer have to use pig money specifically on pigs-- can use for deer, elk, sheep, antelope, and bear work.

Not sure how elimination of game mammal status would help because there currently is no limit and hunting is year-round. Depredation and encounter capability is very easy for landowners to control damage done by wild pigs. Things that it would change is "leave and lay" and elimination of the "wanton waste" provision possibly. This would enable people to kill pigs at will--which they can largely do now with a depredation permit.

Private landowners will still likely want wild pigs for selling hunting opportunity; therein lies the limitation on control because there is a refuge.

We recently learned that CA Dept. of Food and Agric. however has a "pest" designation that they could apply giving them permission to enter private lands and work to eradicate agricultural pests-- pigs could be one.

some rambling thoughts- eric