Feral hogs are smart, excellent at procreating, and often large and scary. In spite of efforts around the area to counter their ever-expanding population, they keep reproducing and roaming our woods and hills causing extensive damage, sometimes on private property.
Doug Stowe and Jean Elderwind live just north of the Eureka Springs city limits, and a year ago, Stowe walked outside one morning to find their patch of perennials had been plowed up and totally destroyed by a sounder of feral hogs looking for something underground to eat. Stowe and Elderwind invested in materials to set up a low-tech trap on their picturesque hillside. It is basically a wire fence circling a feeding spot with a lever connected via a pulley to an elevated gate. The lever hangs over a spot of corn. An animal eating the corn bumps the lever and the gate closes.
Stowe remarked it is the first thing he thinks of in the morning, and every evening at dusk he must remember to bait and set the trap. He said squirrels and raccoons also trip his trap.
“We’ve trapped about thirty six hogs so far and dispatched them, and our neighbor has killed another six,” Stowe said. “By killing a bunch of them, we’ve asserted our claim on the territory.”
Nevertheless, he still sees hogs in the woods on his game camera, and there is rooting damage along the roadway. “It’s a triumph over them for the short-term,” he said, “but it’s a matter of time before they return.”
Stowe mentioned Lake Leatherwood City Park is an ideal place for hogs because there are fewer dogs to bother them, and there have been hog encounters there. He said no one would want to run into a 300-lb. hog with long tusks.
Parks Director Justin Huss said he ordered two kinds of traps last autumn to address the hog problem at LLCP, but they arrived only a little over a month ago. Now the hogs are more dispersed because the food sources are more plentiful and scattered.
Huss said he has been working with adjoining landowners to identify where the likely feeding spots are, but establishing the network is still in process. He commented setting traps in the park would necessitate putting up signage so that unsuspecting hikers do not walk upon an angry pig in a trap. Setting up traps on private property would be safer because of less pedestrian and bike traffic.
Huss bought a large corral trap that can be activated by a remote cell phone call and a smaller, more flexible trailer-mounted trap that can fit into smaller spaces. So far his traps have captured five hogs. He said because the park is in city limits, a police officer must be called to dispatch the captured quarry.
He said his hope is more landowners like Stowe will set up traps. He noted low-tech traps like Stowe’s can be very effective, but the key is for a network of landowners to pinpoint hog activity so everyone’s efforts are as effective as possible. For now, Huss said he is the clearinghouse for information about feral hog activity in the area. “We’re going to be doing this for years,” Huss said.
He commented the State of Oklahoma lends traps to homeowners. He said state agencies in Arkansas are limited in resources, so it is up to locals to do the initial outreach. He said, “Their intentions are solid,” and it might be within the next year he sees assistance from Arkansas Game & Fish Commission.
Stowe even wondered if Arkansas Department of Transportation might not want to be involved because of rooting damage along roadways. He said he made a presentation to the Carroll County Quorum Court about the problem, but was told they do not have any assistance funds at this time. He said he would be willing to help set up a workshop to relate his experiences and knowledge for landowners with a hog problem. “If the county and Fish and Game are not going to do it, it is up to us to do it,” he said. He also considered setting up a “Hog Report” website so property owners can share experiences because a key to limiting the problem is knowing where the hogs go.
Stowe said, “My kind of trap might not be ideal, but if I could get half a sounder, I at least chase them off temporarily.” However, he noted he does not want to just chase them onto someone else’s property. “I’d just as soon protect other people as well.”
At this point, anyone with feral hog sightings or questions can communicate with Huss at info@eurekaparks.com.