I
have heard a great deal from readers after the column last week concerning last
week’s column about wild hogs.
There is a lot of outrage concerning the Conservation Department’s new
regulations banning the hunting of feral hogs. As one reader told me, “I don’t
want to hunt the things, I want to get rid of them. I will be darned if they
are gonna tell me I have to let them be.”
The
idea that you shouldn’t be shooting feral hogs is silly, unless there is indeed
a trapping program going on, and then it is best to let them be. And if the Department had any common
sense they would stop making stupid regulations like that, and send crews
around to private landowners to teach them how to do their own trapping. A friend of mine from Harrison Arkansas
learned all that on his own and trapped hundreds of feral hogs in north
Arkansas. There is nothing
complicated about it.
I
guess there is indeed a better way.
The MDC killed 43 wild hogs on Bass Pro Shop land next to the Osage River, owned by Johnny
Morris, from their helicopter over a couple of weeks not too far back.
MDC
spokesman Rex Martensen told me over the phone that pilots would circle the
land and MDC employees in the helicopter would shoot hogs they found from the
helicopter. He said Morris paid
nothing, they just wanted to help him out!
He
wouldn’t give me an estimate as to the expense of the employee salaries over
that time, nor how many hours it took, but local residents say they saw the
helicopter for at least two weeks.
According to Martensen the cost of the helicopter use is about 200
dollars per hour! Boy
what an economical helicopter!
That means that if they spent ten days on the project for Bass Pro
Shops, figure what that cost the taxpayers and license payers of Missouri. It cost 400 per day just to fly it from
Jefferson City to the Osage River and back each day… a cost of around 4,000
dollars. Then if it was in the air
just 6 more hours each day, the total cost goes to 160,000 dollars without even
figuring the employee salaries (and all that rifle ammo)! Don’t expect to have
that kind of free work done for just ordinary folks. All that to eliminate 43 hogs on Mr. Morris’s private
hunting area.
If
the MDC won’t do that for you and you want to get rid of hogs on your land, you
won’t do it by hunting, no matter how good you are.
Even
with dogs, you can’t get enough of them to eliminate a substantial
population. Now the MDC does not
want you to put out corn for bait.
Without that you can’t trap enough of them to make a drop in the bucket.
Hog
trapping is simple but you have to ignore that new regulation about corn and
use it as bait. Most landowners ignore it anyway. Learn how to do it
yourself. If you can build a pen,
you can trap hogs.
What
makes it difficult is that tremendous reproductive potential of those hogs, and
the fact that their sense of smell, and hearing is so great. They have more intelligence than
anything else in the woods, right up there with the smartest of dogs, and those
people in the offices at Jefferson City.
I
have a stack of news releases from the Missouri Department of Conservation
which gives among other things, the timber sales they are involved in on public
land owned by you and I and the other citizens of the state. If you think these areas are to be
managed for the preservation of mature woodlands in a natural state for all of
us to enjoy, for the propagation of wild game and wild birds, you might
consider these timber sales figures that are taken from those releases that
come from MDC Commission MONTHLY meetings….. Multiply these figures by twelve!
“
Recommendation to advertise and sell from state-owned wildlife management and
conservation areas….1,147,379 board feet of lumber, 716,948 board feet of
lumber, 3,312,753 board feet of lumber. 1,384,300 board feet of
lumber,1,102,322 board feet of lumber, 1,453,200 board feet of lumber,
1,632,624 board feet of lumber….”.
Logging companies and the M.D.C. make lots of money from the trees all
of us own.
With
these there are all sorts of land sales and purchases and trades too numerous
to list in one column. If you are
thinking of someday protecting an acreage of beautiful natural Ozark land that
means a lot to you, don’t think about donating it to the Department of
Conservation. The trees can be
sold; your donated land can even be sold and traded to developers and
individuals.
If
you have read this column in a newspaper, call them and thank them for not
being afraid to print what is happening.
Of the fifty newspapers receiving this column, there are nearly 20 which
will print nothing not approved by the MDC. The above is all true, but it cannot be printed in any large
newspaper and many smaller ones. You can read all about that in my fall issue
of the Lightnin”Ridge Outdoor magazine. That is the power the MDC has. And sadly, any work Johnny Morris wants
done on his land will be taken care of by the MDC---at NO CHARGE. That has gone
on for years… he has received MILLIONS from all of us over the years, via the
MDC.
Write
to me at Box 22, Bolivar, MO. 65613 or email me at lightninridge47@gmail.com. Past columns, and this one, can be read, unaltered at larrydablemontoutdoors.blogspot.com If you have stories about valid
experiences with the Conservation Department, I will print them in my magazine
and my upcoming book on what they are doing. Just call me at 417 777 5227.