Wild pigs causing harm to ecosystems, agriculture and livestock health
US - Gazing out across this dusty rangeland, it is difficult to believe anything but sagebrush and juniper trees could survive.
29 October 2007
2 minute read
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| KOBBI R. BLAIR | STATESMAN JOURNAL Justin Stevenson, a wildlife disease biologist with Wildlife Services, a division of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, baited corral traps in Central Oregon to trap feral pigs. He found six pigs in a trap July 9 -- the first time feral pigs had been caught this way in Oregon. |
Ranchers in Central Oregon, where it rains about 8 inches per year, struggle to maintain watering holes for cattle, and farmers rely on more fertile bottom lands and irrigation systems for crops.
Many residents use the phrase "ekeing out" when talking about how they make their living.
Most of the wildlife have it just as hard as humans.
But not wild pigs.
Built to reproduce rapidly and root out moisture and food from places other wildlife can't, feral swine quickly are invading Oregon.
Sixteen of the state's 36 counties have known wild pig populations.
