The Swine Invasion - Now it’s being mapped!
There’s a lot of great stuff out there that I’m dying to write about, but I’ve been a little too occupied of late. Two big, and related topics, are the National Conference on Feral Swine (I may have the conference name screwed up… correction later) and a recent article about the phenomenal spread of feral hogs in the past few years. It’s great stuff, and I think you folks will find it pretty interesting.
What it all means though, is that the government has started paying closer attention to the growing pig population acoss the country, and they’re researching solutions to what is perceived as a major problem, both for agriculture and for the environment. On of the newest tools is the National Feral Swine Mapping System (Firefox browser is recommended, but I saw it OK with IE). This is a map showing the areas where feral pigs and wild hogs have been found across the continent. With experts saying we’ll see feral hogs in all 50 states within a decade, this should be an interesting map to watch.
Stay tuned for more!
Interesting map. I find it a little odd that Michigan has nothing listed. I know the DNR here has taken steps and have known feral swine kills. Maybe I’m missing something. Maybe I don’t know the correct classification for feral swine.
Interesting tool though. It is also interesting that it is becoming such a problem.
August 7th, 2008 at 8:49 am
Very cool map, I hadn’t seen a nationwide dist’n yet, but SCWDS did a good job with that one.
August 7th, 2008 at 12:20 pm