Feral hogs are causing major damage to the Mark Twain National Forest.
The animals dig up grasslands and crops, they eat eggs and baby wildlife, and scratching an itch on their backs can literally strip the bark off a tree.
Hunters want a chance to help out with this menace that can weigh over 200 pounds and produce 40 to 50 offspring a year. But the National Forest Service is considering outlawing feral hog hunts on public land in the Mark Twain.
Sherri Schwenke, forest supervisor at Mark Twain, said trapping is the most effective way to get rid of feral hogs.
“Trapping is much more effective when there isn’t any hunting occurring. So we want to make sure our trapping is as effective as possible, whether that’s by landowner request on private land or on the National Forest System lands,” Schwenke said.
But some hunters disagree. John Parsons of Potosi attended a Forest Service open house in Rolla to lobby for hunting. He said it doesn’t make sense to keep hunters out of the battle against feral hogs.
“They get weary to the traps. They start getting trap savvy. So you need dogs to hunt them. People need to shoot them from the deer stands. You can’t just do it one way. I ride horses and go cross country where trappers ain’t going to go,” Parsons said.
Parsons says he should be allowed to hunt feral hogs in the forest, which he said would provide a public service. He points out feral hogs are a problem in many other states, where trapping hasn’t stopped them.
Feral hogs also tear up farm fields. Some local farmers are on the side of trapping.
Dale DeLong, who farms in Phelps County, saw his hay production go down by a third because of feral hogs. He got traps and bait from the Department of Conservation and Forest Service, and trapped 500 hogs in two years. He said hunters can’t compete with that.
“I’ve been around these hogs too long. If you can kill a hog, it’s an accident. If you kill two, it’s a really big accident. Like this one trap, I caught 22 hogs in one night in that trap.”
DeLong says hunters can chase hogs away from trapping sites and make them less curious, and that makes traps less effective.
The Forest Service took in more than 1,000 comments during a monthlong period and will make a decision in the next few weeks about the future of hunting hogs in Mark Twain.
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