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Arkansas changes feral hog harvest rule for WMAs

Arkansas changes feral hog harvest rule for WMAs

By Arkansas Game and Fish Commission

Hunters can now harvest feral hogs during firearms deer, bear or elk seasons on AGFC-managed wildlife management areas.

The Commission approved the change Nov. 17, altering its May 2016 decision to eliminate all feral hog hunting on AGFC-owned WMAs. The initial regulation was placed to remove incentive for any future illegal releases of hogs on public land in Arkansas.

“We continue to catch feral hogs that have ear notches, tags or other marks that indicate illegal releases or escapes are still occurring on or near our WMAs,” according to J.P. Fairhead, feral hog program coordinator. “By eliminating the opportunity for people to go back and hunt hogs on these properties, we hoped to remove the motivation behind these releases.”

The regulation also was established to prevent disturbance to areas with heavy hog activity while AGFC staff conducted trapping efforts to catch hogs in large groups.

Added hunting pressure on hogs can make them extremely wary and scatter them, pushing the problem to neighboring landowners and making capture of the hogs very difficult.

However, not all WMAs were included in the initial ban. Many WMAs owned by federal agencies are managed cooperatively with the AGFC for wildlife, and these areas still allowed the harvest of feral hogs during firearms deer, bear or elk seasons.

“I think we still have some work to do explaining the reasoning behind the hog ban on WMAs,” Jeff Crow, director, said. “We do plan on presenting the ban on all feral hog hunting again in 2019, but for now the Commission has decided to allow shooting of feral hogs on all WMAs during a firearms deer, bear or elk season.”

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