Arkansas’s growing battle with the overpopulating feral hog received a boost April 19 at the state Capitol when Gov. Asa Hutchinson signed Senate Bill 460 into law as Act 991 of the Arkansas General Assembly in front of members of the Arkansas Feral Hog Eradication Task Force.
Feral hogs are considered an animal nuisance species and not wildlife that would fall under the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission’s role of conservation and species management. But, AGFC Deputy Director Chris Colclasure said, “until the task force was created, we were not all working together to combat feral hogs.”
Colclasure notes that feral hogs are responsible for an estimated $19 million in row crop damage in the state and $1.5 billion in damages nationwide annually. The broad state and federal task force of 22 partners “was key in getting this legislation passed,” said Colclasure, who was vice chairman of the task force.
Wes Ward, Arkansas’s secretary of agriculture and chairman of the task force, said, “Agriculture is our state’s largest industry, and feral hogs and the damage that they cause pose an increasing threat to all aspects of our state’s agriculture industry and our ability to make a living.”
Act 991 originated as Senate Bill 460, co-sponsored by state Sen. Kim Hammer, R-Benton, and Rep. Ken Bragg, R-Sheridan, and establishes a $3 million Feral Hog Eradication Fund with the Arkansas Natural Resources Commission. Also, it moves to ANRC the fines that are collected by the AGFC for illegal transport or release of feral hogs.
“They (the task force) did the lion’s share of the work and met many times,” Hammer said. “The good thing this does is it gives us a clear definition of what a feral hog is. One thing also with this, it comes with a $3 million appropriation because of some potential federal funding coming down to help out with that. That will be good to help eradicate the feral hog, as they do billions of dollars of damage around the nation and their fair share here in the state.”
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