by Matt Johnson
CORYELL COUNTY - A booming feral hog population has Coryell County officials taking to the skies to hunt and kill the costly and dangerous nuisance.
The pesky animals cost the county $284,000 last year in reported property damage. On top of that, they've also been linked with the deadly E. coli disease that has infected the Leon River.
For County Trapper Lawrence Pruett, it wasn't always like this.
"When I went to work 11 years ago, there weren't any hogs to speak of here," he said. "In the last five or six years they're just been coming out of everywhere."
It's why even though he can't catch the thousands in his county, he has to do something.
"If we don't do it, there's just that many more," said Pruett. "So it's definitely going to help, it's just not a definite fix-it."
The County will be working with contractors as well as Texas Wildlife Services as part of a three-day hog hunting venture aimed at punting a sizable dent in the local feral hog population.
Pruett says Coryell County has the worst infestations in Central Texas, but that the animals tend to do the most destruction along the Texas Panhandle. He says last year the nearly 2 million of them caused $54 million in property damage that was reported statewide.
Garey Silvers is one of the marksmen brought in by the county to eradicate the hog problem. He says there are more hogs killed in three hours Monday than he expected to take out in the whole day.
"I think we're up to 140 or 150 in three hours," said Silvers. "So that's not too bad, that's a pretty good day already."
The crew spent most of today in rural parts of Coryell County, including properties along Country Roads 315, 314, and 321.
County Judge John Firth hopes the aggressive approach, that has also required state funding, will pay off.
"Certainly from a standpoint of how much of an issue this is for us to have to have the state to come in and help us, is certainly a testimony to the magnitude of the issue," said Firth."
To bring in the helicopter and marksmen, the county paid $7,500 of the $15,000 needed. The state covered the other half.
Pruett spent the day following the helicopter by truck and keeping count of the number of hogs killed. The helicopter will typically be at about 50 feet above ground when a hog has been targeted. He says most of them have gone down easily today, but some have been resilient.
"You get them in one shot, or I've shot some nine times," said Pruett, "it just kind of depends on how they're kind of feeling at the moment."
He's hopeful between 500 and 750 feral hogs are killed in total by Wednesday. Weather conditions may postpone the final day of hunting until later in the week, but Pruett says his crew will wait it out until they can go back and finish the job.
