Several feral swine eradication and control pilot program projects were awarded additional funding recently. U.S. Department of Agriculture Natural Resource Conservation Service Chief of Staff Kyle Allen discusses examples of these projects.
“Texas State Soil and Water Conservation Board, they had three projects that were awarded across Baylor County, Coleman County, Haskell County, several counties across the state,” said Allen.
“And these projects goals are aimed to reduce the population of the feral swine so it can be controlled by trained and equipped local landowners using practical science-based information and coordinated management strategies. These projects are four to five years in length, and so these are going to engage directly with 200 producers across many working acres to look and assess that the damage caused by these feral swine, implement practices, whether that’s fencing or water quality or soil degradation practices, to look at those damages caused and address those. Alabama Soil and Water Conservation Committee, they had four projects that were awarded in several counties, and these projects expect to conduct activities on over 100,000 acres, assisting producers and landowners to restore the land through whatever means was needed on the ground there,” explained Allen.
Allen also added, “Another good one is Louisiana. That’ll be to implement multiple trapping methods across different land uses for eligible landowners participating in the program.”
Audio Reporting by Elizabeth Sanders for Southeast AgNet.