Project Area

This proposed pilot project area encompasses Mobile and Baldwin County. These counties are located in the southwest corner of Alabama. Baldwin County includes 1,590 square miles of land area and Mobile county includes 1,229 square miles of land area.

The project area has a high percentage of open land used for cattle production and row crop land intermixed with riparian forests. The project will encompass controlling feral swine populations in riparian habitats which infiltrate pasture, hayland and cropland acres. These riparian habitats are safe harbors for feral swine, which provide cover, water, and refuge during the daytime hours. They also serve as travel corridors, which often provide connectivity to preferable habitats. Because of this, these riparian areas make perfect locations to conduct feral swine control efforts and subsequent damage reduction activities.

In addition to the agricultural impacts of feral swine in these counties, the Gopher Tortoise population in Mobile County is listed as a federally threatened species. Feral swine are known predators of eggs and hatchlings. Controlling feral swine will remove nest and hatchling predators that impact this species.

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Anticipated Partner Activities

Partner will purchase some new landowner loaner traps for participating landowners that will be moved and controlled by Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) for the life of the project. 

The partner will provide a full-time person at the project level to facilitate the NRCS side of the project. Some funds will be used for marketing to the target audience through various means to be determined. Social media is expected to be a large part of marketing.

Funding will provide financial assistance to landowners and producers who are not landowners (if they have written land leases) for traps. Assistance will be provided for low-cost/low-tech traps, as well as higher cost/high-tech traps. Financial assistance will also be provided for cell phone data service each year and a fixed amount of corn for baiting each year.

Land improvement funding will provide financial assistance to participating landowners and producers who have successfully reduced feral swine damage on identified properties. This could potentially include not only direct cost-share to assist with smoothing and replanting damaged areas, but also landowners renting or purchasing certain restoration equipment on a cost-shared basis. Rental equipment would include more expensive equipment such as no-till drills or native warm season grass drills to be used for replanting damaged areas. If there is certain equipment that is in high demand and short supply in the project area, the Partner will have the flexibility to purchase the identified equipment for a discounted rental for qualified landowners that are implementing land improvement activities.

APHIS will be considered the subject matter experts for implementing feral swine removal and damage reduction activities. Partners will need to collaborate with APHIS personnel when removal activities are requested by participating landowners. All projects will be a collaborative and coordinated effort between the selected partner, Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), and APHIS. It is required that APHIS maintains operational control of feral swine management activities.

Monitoring/Evaluation Requirements of Partner

For this project, partners are expected to monitor project progress both before and after feral swine removal.

Partners are required to collect standardized information for trapping operations in accordance with APHIS procedures. Examples of data collected include trap location, number of pigs trapped, location of nearby resources, etc.

Training Expectations

Education will be essential aspects of the project to ensure landowners are educated on the need for removing feral swine, approved techniques, and methods for controlling feral swine populations. Partners are expected to assist with training and educational activities.

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