Project Area

Knox, Haskell, and Baylor contain 1,725,440 acres. United States Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service reports a combined total of 1006 farms and ranches covering 661,149 acres of cropland, 945,052 acres of pastureland, and 19,293 acres of woodlands. The counties are within the Brazos River Basin and contain several creeks, rivers and lakes with potential for feral swine contamination, including Clinch River, First Creek/Connor Creek in Knox County, Lake Stamford (with the Wichita River and numerous named creeks) in Haskell County and the Brazos River and Wichita River (with Lake Kemp and Lake Diversion) in Baylor County. Beef cattle, wheat, cotton, and hay are the chief agricultural products.

Map(s)

Anticipated Partner Activities

The partner will coordinate a trap loan program to deliver traps, assist landowners in setting the traps, delivering initial bait and tracking landowner time as in-kind support for the project. The partner will coordinate with Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) – Wildlife Services and will provide quarterly reports and a final project report to Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS).

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, NRCS, and APHIS. It is required that APHIS maintains operational control of feral swine management activities.

Monitoring/Evaluation Requirements of Partner

Continual monitoring will be conducted to identify reinfestation of cooperating properties. Annual damage data collection will evaluate the efficacy of the project. APHIS will adjust intensity of control based on monitoring and the partner will report damage data annually and trap loan statistics quarterly. The partner will gather damage data and summarize damage data by project area.

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

Community-level outreach will be in the form of organized community open house, press releases, newspaper articles and radio programs.

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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