From the sounds of things, you’re in Hawaii? The Hawaiians have a thousand years or so of history with pigs in the islands now (long enough that they’ve become part of the Island mythology), and while they have been blamed (rightly or not) for some serious environmental damage there, they’ve also not proven to be quite eco-apocalyptic either.

The real damage to most of this country, and to the islands, is, as Evelyn points out, “the human pushing back the wild lands.”

If anyone wants to point a finger at a non-native, invasive species, they need look no further than sheep or cattle. For sheer destruction of watersheds, native plants, and displacement of native species, nothing has done as much as livestock. This isn’t a general slam on ranchers or herders by the way, just a point of fact.

The other non-native invasive, of course, is man, but that’s another story altogether.

I don’t know that there’s anything unlikely about conservationists cheering on the hunters, though. Generally, we really do have the same end goals… although our methods and rationale may vary.

They’ve been here as long as I have and it is the human pushing back the wild lands just like it is everywhere else.

I’ve found my conservationist self in the unlikely situation of cheering the hunters on because our wild darlings are not indigenous. That’s how I justify it. Besides, the cruelty to the pork population comes from the State who sends people in to snare them! Those bastards!

I’m all for quick, fast, cook ‘em and eat ‘em. No harm no foul. No cruelty, just exercise for the hunters and their dogs.

So glad I found this blog!

Look at Tejon. It’s grasslands is lush year-round and invariably green in spring. I have no doubt that its being helped by the pigs aerating the soil by its rooting.

No doubt the pigs will wreck havoc on plants in any agricultural area. But that’s more the exception than the rule and certainly it is not without solution.

CRig, you’ve got some good questions there. I’d like to see some solid, objective research to find the real answers. Somehow, I think we’ll find that a lot of the impacts feral hogs have on the native habitat are actually positive. Rooting, for example, is nothing more than disrupting soil and ground cover.

As Michael points out, the Native Hunt ranches are loaded with hogs, yet the quail populations are booming.

Oh, and an interesting point about the lions… Michael, did you know the DFG and UC Davis are investigating the theory that the pigs are causing a boom in the population of mountain lions, which are, in turn, decimating the deer populations? That’s just about the craziest damned theory I’ve ever heard!

**Read local (Santa Clara County) rancher and author: George Work’s dissertation on the subject!

And you have personal knowledge of this yourself Phillip by how many quail (ground nesting birds) are out at the N.H. ranches.
Despite the fact that the ranches are crawling with pig’s!

Very interesting.