Wild Boar Blamed For Highway 1 Hazard

[Rohclem]

http://www.theksbwchannel.com/news/2866815/detail.html

Wild Boar Blamed For Highway 1 Hazard
Animals Blamed For Causing Numerous Crashes

POSTED: 8:51 am PST February 23, 2004

CARMEL, Calif. -- Wild boar are being blamed for creating a traffic hazard along a scenic stretch of Highway 1 south of Carmel.

The animals, dead and alive, have been seen with growing frequency by local residents.

"I've seen at least 20 dead ones out there, and one live one," said Vicki Odello, who drives the section of road daily to and from her Carmel Meadows home. "I'm sure there are hundreds of them out there."

The wild boar have been blamed for causing numerous accidents, including a crash last September that badly injured one man.

Adam Rogers, a champion kickboxer and owner of a popular martial arts studio in Seaside, was driving home on his motorcycle last fall when he encountered a herd of pigs on the roadway.

Rogers was involved in a crash that involved two other vehicles. He suffered serious head injuries that left him in a coma for a month. He is still hospitalized and faces lengthy rehabilitation once he is released.

Wild boar have lived in the Carmel area for nearly a century, after being deliberately introduced by hunters. They have only become a traffic hazard on this stretch of road in the past five years, according to both residents and state parks staff.

 

[Buck-eye]

I have been down that stretch a time or two. Beautiful area, Carmel.

 

[pbrdog]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div>

after being deliberately introduced by hunters.[/b]

They say that as if it's a bad thing. I was out searching for them last weekend and didn't see any. This guy runs them over on the highway. Maybe I should hunyt closer to the highways.

 

[BDB]

There is an area not too far from there that is public land that I haven't been too in a while. Last time I was there it was a bit of a hike in and not real popular but there were plenty of deer, maybe I should check it out and see if there are any hogs roaming around since the #'s seem to be up in the area.

 

[Kentuck]

This article is on the SF Chronicle's website.....

Wild pigs turn Highway 1 into treacherous track
Maria Alicia Gaura, Chronicle Staff Writer
Monday, February 23, 2004
©2004 San Francisco Chronicle | Feedback | FAQ


URL: sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/02/23/BAGUN5650S1.DTL



Carmel -- Lured by soggy fields bordering Highway 1, wild pigs intent on a moonlit wallow have transformed a stretch of scenic highway near Carmel into a perilous obstacle course.

Wild boar -- both dead and alive -- have become a common sight along the two-lane highway just south of Carmel, causing numerous accidents, including one bloody pileup that badly injured a local man.

The rash of crashes has even prompted the California Department of Transportation to approve one-of-a-kind "pig crossing" signs for the stretch of highway just south of the Carmel River bridge.

But the signs won't be up for another three or four months, Caltrans officials say. In the meantime, residents here wonder anxiously who will next run afoul of the slow-moving porkers.

"I've seen at least 20 dead ones out there, and one live one," said Vicki Odello, who drives the section of road daily to and from her Carmel Meadows home, located south of the hazardous stretch. "I'm sure there are hundreds of them out there."

Odello encountered a pig lumbering down the center of the highway one night and tried to scare it off the road by flashing her lights and honking the car horn.

"It didn't even react," Odello said. "It just kept on going down the center line. It wasn't the least bit afraid."

Odello's friend Kim Candler also had a swine sighting that left her mystified. While driving the stretch of road one evening, Candler and her husband saw a man trotting down the shoulder holding the rear hooves of a pig, wheelbarrow-style, in his hands.

The pig, which had apparently been hit by a car, was alive but seemingly stunned enough to put up with the indignity of the situation and keep trotting with its front hooves.

"We pulled alongside and said, 'What are you doing with the pig?' " Candler said. "He said, 'I'm going to take it home! Get it into my car!' It was Fellini-esque."

As far as authorities know, nobody has yet died from a pig-related collision. But in September, martial arts instructor Adam Rogers came close. Rogers, a champion kickboxer and owner of a popular martial arts studio in Seaside, was driving home to Monterey on his motorcycle when he encountered a herd of pigs on the roadway.

The crash involved three vehicles, killed six pigs and left Rogers with serious head injuries. The 40-year-old father of two was in a coma for a month. He is still hospitalized and faces lengthy rehabilitation once he is released.

Rogers' accident galvanized the community and brought focus to the simmering problem of pigs on the roadway. The speed limit on the rural stretch is 50 mph, but motorists tend to drive faster -- and the dark, hairy swine, which have a low-slung physique and weigh hundreds of pounds, are hard to spot at night since there are no streetlights.

A communitywide benefit was organized to help pay Rogers' medical bills; Odello called Caltrans to ask for warning signs on the pig-plagued stretch of highway.

To Odello's surprise, officials at the transportation agency quickly agreed to install the signs.

Now highway warning signs featuring a large boar leading a piglet across a reflective yellow background will join the familiar leaping-deer, waddling duck family and bear silhouette in the pantheon of official Caltrans animal- warning signs posted around the state.

A short stroll along the shoulder of Highway 1 between the Carmel River and Ribera Road illustrates why the highway agency so readily agreed to create new warning signs. The evidence of pig traffic is everywhere:

Just off the road, vultures were picking apart the carcass of an enormous pig that apparently had been hit by a car. The brush alongside the road was riddled with pig trails, leading to churned-up marshy spots where the porkers apparently bask in the mud and dig for food. And pig hoofprints were everywhere.

While wild boar have lived in the Carmel area for nearly a century, after being deliberately introduced by hunters, they have only become a traffic hazard on this stretch of road in the past five years, according to both residents and state parks staff.

That was when the Odello family, which had farmed alongside the highway for generations, abandoned the fields on the west side of the highway after two successive flood years ruined their artichoke crops.

The land, now being restored as wetland habitat by the State Parks Department, was allowed to go fallow. Species of plants and animals that pigs like to eat began to proliferate in the moist soil.

And the pigs that live in the parkland and scrubby hillsides on the east side of the highway now had a reason to cross the road on a regular basis.

"They never came into the fields when there were artichokes there," said Bruno Odello, Vicki Odello's father-in-law, who farmed the land for decades. "But now there's no fencing along both sides of the highway, there's easy access and there's good eating for them."

State Parks Ranger Chuck Bancroft agrees that the pigs didn't seem interested in artichokes. He has supervised much of the wetland restoration work that has taken place on the fields since the Odellos retired from farming.

"When the artichoke fields were here, the pigs were not noticeable," Bancroft said. "Once restoration started and we got some really good growth going in there, we started seeing lots of activity."

There are no plans to install pig fencing along the highway or to reduce the numbers of pigs, according to Caltrans officials.

"For the time being, we are making the public aware (by installing warning signs)," said Caltrans spokeswoman Susana Zavala. "We are not taking aggressive action. Maybe a simple sign alerting the public, one in each direction, will suffice. If the problems continue, then maybe more drastic measures will take place."

Cheryl Moreland, a friend of the Rogers family, said Adam Rogers was told of the plan to install signs, and said he was pleased. "Something had to be done," he told her.

"I just want them to do something before somebody gets killed," Moreland said.

E-mail Maria Gaura at mgaura@sfchronicle.com.

©2004 San Francisco Chronicle | Feedback | FAQ

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[Kentuck]

How convenient, they gave a map showing the problem area.......

 

[dirtpoor]

Is bowhunting allowed in that area?

 

[Kentuck]

dirtpoor,

first I'd say that area is probably all private ground. given the proximatey to Carmel I would all say any hunters will never get a crack at them pigs.

 

[Rancho Loco]

This is all private land, along with some state beach and Point Lobos S.P.

Last summer I did some work on a house at Yankee Point, and driving through the area, it was easy to see where the piggies were rooting near a water hole on the ranchland east of the highway.

This is prime piggy habitat. Someone can go down and knock on doors to ask for access on some of the local properties, the worst that can happen is they say no.

I'm covering my side of the Monterey Bay. We're getting overrun!