Bringing Home the Bacon: Feral Pigs May Entice Hunters to Eastern Washington This Fall

A feral swine population in Eastern Washington has prompted the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife to shutter a portion of a popular wildlife area for the duration of August. The closure will allow the WDFW to conduct eradication efforts on the wild pigs while keeping the public from spooking the wayward hogs and out of harm’s way.

When the area reopens Sept. 1, in conjunction with the traditional start of general hunting seasons, hunters may well join the eradication effort in a decidedly unofficial capacity.

During the dogged days of August, while the Desert Unit of the Columbia Basin Wildlife Area is closed, the USDA will be using bait stations to draw the feral swine in from far and wide. They will then attempt to snipe the hogs from the gunslinger’s seat of a low-flying helicopter.

The ongoing closure will affect about 1,300 acres of the Columbia Basin Wildlife Area’s Desert Unit in Grant County. The decision to close the area and vigorously pursue the pigs with the help of a whirlybird was made by WDFW after pigs were documented in the area for an entire calendar year.

“We first started receiving public reports of wild pigs in the wildlife area last July,” said Monda in a press release. “One of our officers shot a pregnant sow two months later, and we’ve occasionally picked them up on remote cameras over the past year. We don’t want this to get out of hand.”

The Washington Invasive Species Council and the USDA both consider feral swine to be an invasive species with potential to wreak havoc on native ecosystems and local economies. The ecological damage inflicted by feral swine is estimated at $1.5 billion per year and officials warn that the animals can transmit disease and parasites to livestock as well as humans. As a result, the USDA is currently conducting efforts in 39 states to control the spread of the pigs run amok.

Officials noted that they have attempted to contact local farmers in the area in order to determine if the hogs originated from any of their pigpens. Those efforts were ultimately unsuccessful and it was eventually decided that hunting the hogs down from a helicopter was the best hog harassing option. The USDA also plans on taking DNA samples from the hair of harvested hogs in order to help determine their origin.

“We’re hoping this closure will have minimal impacts on wildlife area visitors,” Monda said in the release. “With the hot weather and buggy conditions, August is the time of year the Desert Unit is least visited by wildlife watchers, anglers and hunters.”

The WDFW will post signs marking off the area during the closure and the entire wildlife area will reopen on September 1 for the start of early hunting seasons.

When the area opens back up hunters of all stripes will be pouring in to pursue and harvest animals that are regulated by the WDFW. Pigs though are not a considered to be “wildlife,” and as such, the WDFW has no jurisdiction over when or where they can be hunted. In fact, it is a topic that the department would prefer not to touch with a ten-foot musket.

“There is hunting on the wildlife area. It’s just like any other wildlife area,” noted Monda in a phone interview. Carefully parsing his words, though, he added, “There's complications with pigs. You have to be pretty certain that they are feral and not owned by anyone. ... You don't want to shoot a pig that belongs to anyone."

However, Monda noted that “It’s illegal to let pigs free range,” so any farmer who claimed a feral hog as their own would therefore be in violation of the law as well. Making a determination on which entity has the more legitimate claim to a hog found on a wildlife area is not something the WDFW is willing to do however.

"That's a decision you would have to make as a private hunter. It's not a decision that we are going to make for you,” explained Monda. “You're taking a risk. … It’s just a difficulty for us saying, look, here, go shoot these pigs."

Monda did note that hunters in the Columbia Basin Wildlife Area had some success hunting hogs last year. He also pointed out that some states ban hunting wild pigs all together in order to reduce the incentive to release domestic pigs into the wild.

In the eyes of the WDFW there are other issues with free for all hunts on feral hogs as well. "The other thing is that if you really have a pig problem, what happen is that pigs are smart and they change their behavior and stay under cover and they are impossible to eradicate,” explained Monday. "The last thing you want is people chasing them around and hunting. It doesn't matter if they are hunting pigs intentionally, they're going to get nervous."

Over at the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, Laurence Schafer, the Feral Swine Coordinator for the USDA in Washington, said that the Columbia Basin Wildlife Area pigs are the only known population of feral swine in the state at the time being.

“We’re not aware of any other pigs,” said Schafer. “Those are the only ones that we know we have left.”

Despite the lack of robust populations in Washington the threat of a full blown feral swine outbreak is still something that the USDA takes seriously.

“Feral swine are aggressive and pose serious ecological, economic, and health threats. They are aggressive animals that can be extremely destructive to fields, fences, and facilities. Their wallows can affect ponds and wetlands, muddying the water and destroying aquatic vegetation,” explained Justin Bush, executive coordinator of the Washington Invasive Species Council, in an email. “They can strip a field of crops in one night and pose a threat to ground-nesting birds and some endangered species. Feral swine also can transmit diseases and parasites, such as pseudorabies, brucellosis, and tuberculosis, to livestock and people.”

Although the wild pigs in Grant County are currently the only confirmed population in the state Bush said that, “It's difficult to identify the source of feral swine in Washington. It's most likely that they are escapees from farms. Farms aren't necessarily to blame; it is difficult to keep livestock contained.”

Bush added that, “In some instances, we could have feral swine migrating into Washington from other areas... Feral swine can swim and run long distances,” and noted that Oregon does have established populations of feral swine.

“Currently, feral swine can be hunted in Washington. However, for any non-life threatening feral swine encounter — involving a person, pet or livestock (feral swine have been documented killing livestock), we recommend that the public not hunt feral swine,” wrote Bush in an email.

Bush explained that his department’s rationale for advising against feral swine hunting is four-fold. For one, feral swine can carry disease and parasites so a hunter who comes in contact with a wild pig may become infected themselves or infect others or livestock.

Secondly, Bush said that wild pigs put Washington’s agriculture industry at risk through disease introduction and crop damage. He noted that agriculture is a $49 billion industry in the state that employs about 160,000 people and accounts for 13 percent of the state’s economy.

Next in the column against hunting invasive pigs Bush listed the “massive environmental impacts, especially in wetland and riparian habitat. Feral swine can destroy fish and wildlife habitat, and even prey on wildlife.”

While it would seem that hunting these invasive beasts would help to mitigate those detrimental factors, Bush contends that the hunting of wild hogs would actually increase the odds that more of their kind will proliferate, mostly through the purposeful release of domestic hogs by hunters in order to create viable and huntable wild populations.

“To ensure that Washington State's economy, agriculture, health, and natural resources are not harmed by establishment of feral swine, the goal of feral swine response is eradication. While we appreciate the public's interest in protecting Washington's resources and economy by hunting feral swine, the tactics and tools used by sport hunters are not sufficient to ensure eradication,” wrote Bush. “If someone from Washington State wanted to hunt feral swine for sport, we recommend connecting with a ranch or outfitter in a state that has well-established populations like Texas or Hawaii. It's more likely that the hunt would be successful, and the affected states would greatly appreciate the assistance in managing a problem that has gotten out of control.”

Over at the Grant County Sheriff’s office, Sergeant Dan Klump, currently the acting captain, was more pragmatic about the realities of wild pig hunting in the No. 1 potato producing county in the nation.

“If they’re out there truly hunting the pigs they won’t even need a license to try and go out there to harvest them,” noted Klump.

However, Klump said that the actual size of the population within his jurisdiction is likely not much to squeal over.

“I believe there is one boar out there and one piglet that was running around that they think the coyotes might have got, or it might have been wounded,” said Klump, detailing the limited results from a previous aerial survey. “From the data and information that I’ve been recieving it seems like there aren’t many out there. Maybe they’ll find more during their flights.”

Still, if a hunter is dead set on bringing his own wild pork rinds they are legally free to hunt and harvest feral swine in the Columbia Basin Wildlife Area, or anywhere else in Washington that hunting is allowed.

“They don’t even need to have a hunting license,” noted Klump. “But, if they are using that as a loophole to be out there with there buddies and actually targeting deer, they are going to wind up in hot water.”

A law enforcement veteran of 14 years Klump said that the excitement stirred up by the feral pigs in Grant County reminds him of the reported population of peregrinating pigs way up the Wynoochee River drainage from back in the aughts.

“The closest thing I’ve ever had to this was when there were rumors of pigs in the Wynoochee,” said Klump. He noted that there were no confirmed sightings or killings that came out of that frenzy more than a decade ago, but plenty of hunters swear they have seen the hogs with their own eyes and the rumors persist to this day.

“I think a few people went out there and there were probably a few taken but nothing to get established,” said Klump. “My guess is that those pigs didn’t make it through that first winter.”

Checking back in with the USDA, Schafer encouraged anyone who encounters a feral swine to report their sighting to the USDA through their “Squeal on a Pig” invasive species hotline and website.

“That’s where we get almost all of our reports of feral swine,” explained Schafer.

Reports of feral swine can be made by calling 1-999-268-9219 or by going online to http://www.invasivespecies.wa.gov/sighting_form.shtml.