When Pigs and People Collide An explosion in the feral hog
population causes problems on ranches and in suburbia. By
Russell A. Graves A tough winter left the mesquite trees barren
of leaves and the grass a dormant shade of brittle brown. From a
helicopter, the landscape is unremarkable, save for the
occasional canyon that scours through the rust-red dirt of the
Texas Rolling Plains. A hundred feet beneath us, the land
slipping past is mostly a contiguous patchwork of brush, cactus
and grass. Conspicuously, though, large swatches of freshly
turned earth break the topographical monotony. This ranch is
overrun with feral hogs. “From the ground, you can see where the
hogs root,” explains pilot Luke Boedeker as he checks the
integrated GPS unit to make sure that we’re within the ranch
boundaries. “But once you get in the air, it’s pretty amazing
how much ground they actually tear up.” On a warm February day,
I join Boedeker on his latest assignment: controlling the
exploding wild hog population on an expansive ra