Great Smoky Mountains National Park battling infestation of hogs

WRAL ^ | January 24, 2010

[tubebender]

I think I found where your Pings went...

[eyedigress]

LOL! (yes, I lurked that thread) :^)

[Libloather]

You can't keep her outta state?

[girlangler]

I live near the park.

To answer all your questions, these populations of European wild boars were established before the park was, when they were imported and kept on a hunting preserve nearby.

They have no predators to keep the populations in check, so the numbers have exploded. The hogs also move into the nearby Cherokee National Forest, where they can be hunted.

The U.S. Park Service has very few properties where hunting is allowed, and the Smokies doesn’t allow it. Therefore the USPS, which is always whining about needing more money, has to pay sharpshooters to thin these, when they could charge permit fees and let the public do it.

I think this biologist is WAY off base suggesting hunters are releasing domestic pigs to breed with these. There are not enough hunters to hunt these now, and they are plentiful in the Cumberland Plateau and public hunting areas all over the eastern part of Tennessee.

Therefore, boar hunting guide operations have increased (along with the hog population) up on the Cumberland Plateau. But still more needs to be done. These are being very destructive to the native flora and fawna in the Smokies, but political correctness will never allow the problem there to be solved.

[mamelukesabre]

People are made of meat.

[6SJ7]

It takes a real special kind of stupid to wonder why since hunting was banned the invasive species population skyrockets. A Federal kind of stupid...

I've heard this aptly labeled "weapons grade stupid".

[agrace]

[Billthedrill]

People are made of meat.

Yeah. Happy hunting.

[eyedigress]

I live just off the Stones River now in Rutherford Co. and if one dares venture in my sight it is one dead animal.

[GladesGuru]

If shot with a large enough gun, hogs can be spread - sometimes a few feet.

;-)

[GladesGuru]

“My pig is prettier!”

Perhaps, but we spotted you putting lipstick on it.

;-)

[TribalPrincess2U]

We get it from my grandson. He traps them in large cages and has it processed so I doubt he would know any recipe, sorry.

They are on his ranch in east TX.
He says they are plentiful but very destructive to the land.

[Monterrosa-24]

Its not even the ole Smokies anymore...the signs tell you it is the United Nations Biosphere G.S.M.

[eyedigress]

Touche'

Be careful....

[Angry_White_Man_Syndrome]

Same here in Arkansas. They do a lot of damage. A couple guys at work went on a hunt on a guys farm and got 43 in one morning.

[Hammerhead]

Helicopter boar hunting porn!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xiHmYsyVniE

[vetvetdoug]

I agree whole heartedly. The NPS is chock full of government worker gun hating tree huggers. The deer are so thick that they have a severe outbreak of EHD about every 7-10 years that kills hundreds of them. Opening the season from late December to February would be a boon and it is the time of the season where visitation to the park is decreased significantly. Managing the wildlife with organized hunting would be the most efficient and humane method.

[ClayinVA]

I am not hunting boars with my AR, you go ahead. I will be taking alone something a little bigger.

[fightinJAG]

Personally, I think we have a nation-wide pork problem.

[VeniVidiVici]

Ok. So why isn’t hunting allowed in the Smokeys?