Wild hog damage

Wild hogs in Lincoln and Pottawatomie counties are increasing and continue to root up land and destroy crops, according to a couple of area state game wardens.

Jacob Harriet, a game warden assigned to Lincoln County who also assists in Pottawatomie County, said, “they are just steadily rising.”

Harriet said some landowners have contacted him in the area off of U.S. 177 about 930 Road, two to three miles south of State Highway 66 and “it’s the first hogs they’ve been,” Harriet said. “Another area is around 970 Road a few miles south of 930 Road. There are a lot of pigs there.”

Harriet said over the last couple of years corn farmers have been calling him regarding the destruction that hogs are causing.

“The hogs move in the night after the corn has been planted earlier that day and just walk the rows uprooting the corn. They go in like a plow,” he added.

He noted last year the hogs were all over the Fallis, Deep Fork area and this year they seem to be near State Highway 102 and the county line and 1070 Road off of SH 102 near the North Canadian River.

Harriet stated, “They’re in the Fallis bottom of the Deep Fork and all around Stroud Lake and Prague Lake, too. There are a ton of them in the Deep Fork bottom.”

He further explained that unless it’s a dry area, they can be in most any areas of the county.

Mike France, a state game warden assigned to Pottawatomie County, also assists in Lincoln County.

Regarding the hunting of hogs, both game wardens emphasized, “There’s no scanning in the evening with night vision or thermal or off of the roads.

“Written landowner permission to hunt his or her land is needed and that must be on the person. There is no wild hog hunting allowed at night during deer muzzleloader or any deer firearms season. During those seasons, hog hunters may shoot hogs during the day with an unfilled deer or muzzleloader gun license,” they both stressed.

“But they do need a hunting license and deer license to hunt the hogs for that season during muzzleloader and gun deer season and the holiday antlerless season,” they said.

France emphasized, “Holders of lifetime hunting licenses or combination lifetime license holders don’t have to worry about that.”

If unsure, contact your local game warden to clarify it. Contact numbers for the state game wardens across the state are listed on Page 2 of the Oklahoma Hunting and Fishing regulations magazine.

Harriet added, “During the deer seasons a lot of hogs die. They’ll move from one area to another, but they’ll come back to an area later, it just varies.”

Harriet pointed out the hogs are all along Quapaw Creek, north and south of it and east and west of State Highway 18.

France said, “The wild hogs are showing up on the North Canadian River in the northern part of Pottawatomie County. A resident over in that area called and said he has a small herd on the North Canadian only about a mile from him.”

France noted, too, he’s received reports of wild hogs east of Shawnee on the North Canadian on private land. While it’s not a large herd there yet, the landowner indicated they are starting to root up the land.

He was asked to speak recently at a meeting of the Pottawatomie County Cattlemen’s Association. “There were lots of questions about the pigs and what can and can’t they do,” France said.

“The hogs are all over the South Canadian, Salt Creek and the Little River,” France said.

“You need written consent from a landowner and you must contact a game warden to shoot the hogs at night. You also need a free feral pig permit that you can get online to hunt them at night, but there must be damage to a harvestable crop in order to shoot them at night,” he said.

“For daytime hunting of the hogs, you don’t need to contact the game warden, but you still must have written landowner consent on you,” he said.

Harriet has seen an increase in the number of hog hunters.

“There’s about 10 who really do a good job and who are safe about it. There are some of these guys hunting them who are not safe.”