Kokua Line June Watanabe

---

State can help find solutions to pig problem

Question: There have been a number of stories in the paper about pigs, but it is really getting out of hand. Pigs found my back yard in Aina Haina about three years ago. It was all was fine for 11 years after I first landscaped it; now it looks like a war zone. Pigs have uprooted my plants, even wiping out a 20-by-20-foot ti leaf garden; borders are torn up, and rocks tumble down the hill toward the house. Soon I expect them on the deck and through the doors! The state Department of Land and Natural Resources only refers me to pig hunters, who help some (seven pigs later). But it dawned on me that they are there for different purposes. If they catch a baby pig, they give or sell it to a pig farm. If they are on the trail of a sow, they let it go so they will have more to hunt. If they come across midsize ones, they let them go until they get bigger. The only ones they really go after are the big boars. I basically cannot use 50 percent of my lot due to the pigs. I know they were here before me, but if I am not mistaken, they were imported just like me, and I pay taxes, they don't. Can you help?

Answer: The Department of Land and Natural Resources advises contacting its Division of Forestry and Wildlife at 587-0166.

Officials there acknowledge that most calls are then referred to the Oahu Pig Hunters Association, which dispatches licensed public hunters to deal with specific areas.

If the hunters are not able to handle the problem, "then other alternatives are considered, depending on the situation," said DLNR spokeswoman Deborah Ward. "Working with the district biologist and local hunters, landowners and the division can devise a solution that addresses the specific concerns for the area."

Alternative methods include using traps and snares; hunting with archery or firearms; tracking and capturing the pigs with dogs; and putting up fences to keep them out of sensitive areas.

The methods vary according to each area, and usually a combination of methods is necessary to deal with specific problems, Ward said.

As it is, licensed public hunters handle 99 percent of the pig complaints received by DLNR "at no cost to the public," she said.

"If the hunters originally assigned to deal with a problem are not resolving the problem to the satisfaction of the landowner, then people should call the (Division of Forestry and Wildlife) and we can refer them to someone else," she said. "There are lots of hunters who would be glad to help them out."

Ward pointed out that problems with feral pigs are complex.

"Land ownership, accessibility to hunters, proximity to urban areas, steepness of the terrain and seasonal pig movements all affect pig distribution and abundance," she said.

She credited licensed hunters for performing "a huge service to the public by keeping feral pigs at reasonable levels and keeping them moving so that they are not able to cause too much damage in any particular area."