By Elliott Jones

ST. LUCIE COUNTY - Two young razorback hogs were found in one of the 18 traps at the Bluefield Ranch Mitigation Bank in St. Lucie County.

PHOTO SLIDESHOW: View more photos of wild pigs

Chuck Olson’s personal answer to tens of thousands of wild pigs thriving on the Treasure Coast is the retort of his Henry rifle.

The animals’ on-going uprooting of native plants and ground on his 4-square-mile former ranch in western St. Lucie County is costing him about $50,000 a year to manage.

Olson’s Bluefield Ranch is a private commercial land preserve, an environmental mitigation bank that developers pay into in return for building on protected lands on their own property. The money pays for creating natural areas on the former ranch to compensate for the protected lands they destroy.

In the last decade, Olson has had thousands of the feral pigs shot on his property — leaving them as carrion for wildlife, such as eagles.

And local University of Florida Cooperative Extension agent Ken Gioeli said Olson’s approach may be aimed in the right direction, under certain circumstances.

As Treasure Coast property owners and officials who manage public lands grapple with the problem, Gioeli and others said it might be time to consider helping control the Treasure Coast’s pig population by selectively allowing hunting on public park lands experiencing problems, especially when pigs learn to avoid cage traps. Some have.

The main problem with pigs is that are large and burrow up the ground, much like a tractor and plow, and displace more desirable wildlife, plant and animal.

They quickly reproduce and they now have virtually no predators outside of humans.

Private property owners such as Olson can shoot hogs on their own private property during the day, subject to local and state gun laws, said Henry Cabbage, spokeswoman for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. On private land, wild pigs are considered farm livestock.

And if pigs are left unchecked on public lands, they could spill over onto private lands. Ranchers already contend with pigs digging up cattle pastures.

University of Florida professor William Giuliano is an expert is wild pigs.

“People just need to be willing to allow more coordinated and intensive trapping” along with hunting, he said.

Treasure Coast has perfect habitat for wild pigs. An estimated 500,000 of them live in Southeast Florida.

“Treasure Coast and other areas in the nation appear to be at the top of a curve in facing” a proliferation of wild pigs, Humane Society of the United States official Dave Pauli said.

A national Wild Pig Conference is scheduled in Sarasota on April 11-13 to consider how to manage the animals.

Pauli said, “Some type of lethal control may be necessary,” yet, “it should be done in a humane fashion while looking into other non-lethal methods” including contraception, fencing and public education.

“I do have a concern about hunting in a state park,” Pauli said. “In design and theory, they are a refuge for many species.”

State laws now bans public use of guns in state parks, which are nature preserves for wildlife. But authorized park staff can shoot wild pigs, said Jessica Sims, spokeswoman for the Florida Park Service. U.S. Department of Agriculture contractors help with controlling the pigs in parks and removal, she said, and that is done following the American Veterinary Medical Association’s methods of humane removal.

In western Martin County is the 21,875-acre Dupuis Management Area, a state-managed public hunting and nature preserve owned by the South Florida Water Management District.

Last year, hunters took 120 pigs out of the area.

“We are hopeful hunters would take out more,” said Valerie Sparling, a commission biologist who works with the management area. On that property there is no limit on how many a hunter can kill of the pigs that fall into the same hunting category as skunks and opossums.

Previously, the Dupuis Management Area was a ranch with far more pigs.

“Hunting certainly has helped,” Sparling said.

Controlling pigs is important to public land managers.

The St. Johns River Water Management District alone spends thousands of dollars annually repairing pig-damaged earthen flood control dikes that extend for miles in western Indian River County. Their digging causes erosion that has to be filled in. Also the district’s mowers are damaged by running through areas pigs dig up.

And the animals harm the natural environment.

“(The pigs) out-compete everything else (in the natural environment),” said Mark Nelson, who heads up the Jonathan Dickinson State Park in southern Martin County. Nelson’s comments are echoed by managers of state parks and nature preserves protecting thousands of acres along the Treasure Coast.

So park managers trap pigs from public lands in the region annually.

About 400 pigs a year are removed from the 20,000-acre St. Sebastian River Preserve State park near Sebastian. A contractors uses large cages with bait, such as corn, to lure in the animals.

Jonathan Dickinson State Park removes 175 annually in southern Martin County.

Private trappers typically use the hogs for meat, but farm-raised pig meat can be purchased for comparable prices at Sams Club.

“I have a phone list of people wanting them (wild pigs)” for barbecues, said trapper Gary Nichols who works on the Treasure Coast, where there are 10 state-listed trappers specializing in hog capture.

Still, hogs abound. There are no federally approved poisons. Old-style bear traps aren’t allowed.

Fencing is expensive.

And some pigs have learned to avoid traps.

They remain a widespread nuisance that Gioeli said needs to be kept in check.

Olson said the number of pigs on his lands, off State Road 70, isn’t unusual along the Treasure Coast or in Florida. Florida ranks second in the nation to Texas in the number of wild pigs.

On Tuesday one was spotted near the Indian River Medical Center on the north side of Vero Beach.

They just need a nearby expanse of woods or swamps to live in.

They can appear in backyards at night and dig up lawns and sprinkler system while looking for worms, trappers say.

“It is impossible to eradicate them” completely, said Gioeli.

Wild pig facts:

This prolific non-native species has been around since first introduced centuries ago by Spanish explorers. An estimated 500,000 now live in Southeast Florida.

Deterring them is hard because they eat anything and live in almost all natural environments. They are adaptable, living off virtually everything from wild turkey eggs to grubs and plants even in urban areas including airports and subdivisions near natural areas.

People shouldn’t feed wild pigs.

Property owners may trap wild pigs but the pigs cannot be taken to a remote area and released. They can be transported to another area to be killed. Also, people may shoot pigs on their own private property, subject to local and state guns laws. The animals should be disposed of humanely.

Recently-killed pigs should be carefully handled because they may have diseases. Meat should be fully cooked.

An adult male hog can grow to 200 pounds, be 3 feet tall and their 4-inch-long tusks can make them appear menacing. They can harbor diseases. Yet they don’t go after people unless threatened, state officials said.

SOURCE: Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission

Managing wild pigs

A public presentation on managing wild pigs along the Treasure Coast is being held at 1 p.m. Jan. 29 at the St. Lucie County International Airport, Fort Pierce.

The featured speaker is wild pig expert William Giuliano, a University of Florida professor. Also to speak will be Bill Frankenberger, who helps control pigs at the Air Force’s Avon Park bombing range in central Florida.

The public is invited, but preregistration is required for the presentation organized by the St. Lucie County Cooperative Extension Service in cooperation with the St. Lucie County International Airport.

For details, call (772) 462-1660. The event will be at 3000 Curtis King Blvd., Fort Pierce

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