Syracuse.com - DEC proposal: Hunting/trapping of wild boar in wild banned

[HuntingNY-News]

The proposal is designed to ensure maximum effectiveness of DEC's statewide eradication efforts

New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Commissioner (DEC) Joe Martens announced Friday the proposal of new regulations that would prohibit hunting or trapping of free-ranging Eurasian boars in the state.

Joe Watkins stands next to a wild boar that he shot in 2010 near his home in the Cortland County town of Scott. The boar had one-inch tusks and weighed about 475 pounds. It's being held up by a backhoe.Submitted photo 

The proposal is designed to ensure maximum effectiveness of DEC's statewide eradication efforts, the commissioner said. Public comments on the new regulations will be accepted until Jan. 25.

"Eurasian boars are a great threat to natural resources, agricultural interests, private property an public safety wherever they occur," Martens said. "It's important that we do all in our power to ensure that this invasive species does not become established in the wild anywhere in New York State."

Eurasian boars were brought to North America centuries ago and wild populations numbering in the millions now occur across much of the southern U.S. In recent years, wild boar populations have been appearing in more northern states too, often as a result of escapes from enclosed shooting facilities that offer "wild boar hunts."

Governor Andrew Cuomo signed legislation on Oct. 21 that immediately prohibited the importation, breeding or introduction to the wild of any Eurasian boars. Furthermore, the law prohibits possession, sale, transport or marketing of live Eurasian boars as of Sept. 1, 2015.

However, there are already small numbers of Eurasian boars on the landscape in New York. Since 2000, wild boars have been reported in many counties across the state, and breeding in the wild has been confirmed in at least six counties (Tioga, Cortland, Onondaga, Clinton, Sullivan and Delaware) in recent years.

DEC is working closely with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Wildlife Services program to remove any Eurasian boars that are reported in New York, and to date more than 150 animals have been captured and destroyed. However, eradication is expensive, time consuming and requires a great deal of manpower.

"Many hunters have offered to assist our efforts by hunting for boars wherever they occur, but experience has shown this to be counter-productive," Martens said. "As long as swine may be pursued by hunters, there is a potential conflict with our swine eradication efforts.

"Eurasian boars often join together to form a 'sounder', the name for a group of pigs sometimes numbering 20 or more individuals. Shooting individual boars as opportunities arise is ineffective as an eradication method, and this often causes the remaining animals to disperse and be more difficult to remove."

Hunters pursuing wild boars in locations where baited traps have been established by DEC or USDA can also undermine these costly and labor-intensive capture efforts.

Shooting may remove one or two animals but the rest of the sounder scatters and rarely comes back together as a group, thereby hampering eradication efforts.

In addition to prohibiting take of free-ranging swine by hunters, the proposed regulation would prohibit anyone from disturbing traps set for wild boars or otherwise interfering with Eurasian boar eradication activities. Hunting wild boar can be done at hunting preserves until 2015.

The proposed regulations provide necessary exceptions for state and federal wildlife agencies, law enforcement agencies, and others who are authorized by DEC to take Eurasian boar to alleviate nuisance, property damage, or threats to public health or welfare.

Anyone who observes a Eurasian boar (dead or alive) in the wild in the state is being asked to report it as soon as possible to the nearest DEC regional wildlife office or to: [email protected] and include "Feral Swine" in the subject line.

Report the number of animals seen, whether any of them were piglets, the date, and the exact location (county, town, distance and direction from an intersection, nearest landmark, etc.). If you have a photograph, send that as well.

The full text of the Proposed Regulation change and instructions for submitting comments can be found on DEC's website.

Comments on the proposed regulations can be sent by email to [email protected] or mailed to: Kelly Stang, NYS Department of Environmental Conservation, Division of Fish, Wildlife and Marine Resources, 625 Broadway, Albany, NY 12233-4754.

View the full article on The Syracuse Outdoors Blog