Land Between The Lakes tries to eradicate feral hogs with armed helicopters.
Land Between The Lakes has seen a growing problem with feral hogs, which are not native to the area. Therefore, federal and state wildlife officials announced that they would begin combatting the issue in the winter by hunting invasive feral hogs in armed helicopters!
In addition to feral hogs being extremely destructive for private landowners, they are also becoming a significant concern for fish and wildlife managers, as well as the common nature enthusiasts in recreation areas. This has been a similar trend throughout the U.S. and it is costing the federal government around $1.5 billion annually.
A spokesperson for Land Between The Lakes stated that prior attempts to curb feral hog populations resulted in the eradication of 70 hogs in 2018, with an additional 124 thus far this year. These attempts at eradication were mostly the result of trapping, but that hasn’t been sufficient, especially since the hogs are becoming privy to the methods.
The feral hogs are very intelligent and often retreat into more remote areas after encountering human activity. By using helicopters to hunt the feral hogs, it will allow officials to cover more ground and reach regions of the Land Between The Lakes recreation areas where the hogs are retreating to.
Christopher Joyner, a spokesperson for LBL said, “We knew we were having problems. We thought up to that point that trapping was going to be able to get us the eradication we needed, because this is not a problem we’ve dealt with here in this kind of scale.” Nonetheless, the helicopter operation is being led by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, in addition to local support from state wildlife officials from Kentucky and Tennessee.
The operation will begin in the winter, to help its efficiency and also to increase its safety. Joyner states, “the aerial part has to be done when there’s no leaves on the trees…so we had to wait until this winter. But that gave us time to do deliberate planning.”
“We knew we were having problems. We thought up to that point that trapping was going to be able to get us the eradication we needed, because this is not a problem we’ve dealt with here in this kind of scale,” Joyner said. “The aerial part has to be done when there’s no leaves on the trees…so we had to wait until this winter. But that gave us time to do deliberate planning.”
This also happens to be after deer season has concluded, which will lower any potential encounters with hunters. Terri Brunjes, a biologist who specializes in feral hogs within the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife, suggests the helicopters will be flying very low, right over the treetops. “We’re going to close small areas off, and we’re going to have a ground crew in constant contact via radio with the helicopter…if the helicopter sees somebody, they’ll call it in with the ground crew going to them and saying ‘hey, we’re doing this operation in this area.’”
Eradication efforts throughout other parts of the Kentucky have been successful, while other areas still need lots of help from wildlife management officials. Have you personally spotted any evidence of invasive feral hogs in your area? If so, you are asked to contact Land Between The Lakes officials.
LBL: Feral Hog Information
- It is illegal to possess, transport, or release live wild hogs in Kentucky or Tennessee.
- Hunting feral hogs in Land Between the Lakes is illegal.
- Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area asks that all feral hog sightings are reported.
