Vicksburg fighting war with feral hogs
AP Photo/The Vicksburg Post, Sam Andrews
Associated Press
A pack of unwelcome swine are going wild at the site of one of the pivotal battles of the Civil War, after seeking higher ground from the flooded Mississippi River last year.
Park officials say a pack of wild hogs are rooting up the landscape at Vicksburg National Military Park, an 1,800-acre site where thousands of Union and Confederate troops fought and died in 1863.
They fear the hogs could undermine some of the park's 1,370 monuments, its national cemetery and trenches and earthworks on the bluffs above the river. The hogs also could startle or injure more than 1 million annual visitors.
"It looks like the world's biggest Rototiller has gone through some areas," park Superintendent Mike Madell said. "People think we plowed some of the areas they've been in."
The Mississippi River crested at record 57.1-feet in Vicksburg on May 19, forcing many animals, including hogs, deer and alligators, into new areas.
The hogs are mostly in the northern third of the park, and the dense brush between Graveyard Road and North Union Avenue. Damage to the earth is particularly noticeable around the Indiana Regiment marker.
Madell said rangers have removed 11 hogs since they first appeared in May 2011. He believes about another dozen are still on the loose.
"I came here two years ago and we had a small population," he said. "I'm pretty sure we got all of them, but the flood drove these in and they are finding plenty of food and good habitat, evidently."
"They could do some real damage to a very historic part of the park," Madell said.
The solution doesn't end well for the hogs. The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service has come in to help the park deal with the problem. Basically, that means killing them and burying them in a discreet area, Madell said.
"The state of Mississippi does not allow transporting them live," he said. "We did look into possibly donating the meat, but health laws prevent that."
Hogs may be shot anytime of the year in Mississippi, Walker said.
"It's an all-out war on them," he said. "But hunting will never get rid of them. They can breed three times a year and a sow can have eight to 10 pigs each time. You do the math."
The siege of Vicksburg ended on July 4, 1863, with Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's forces defeating Confederate Lt. Gen. John C. Pemberton's forces.
The series of battles effectively severed the Con-federacy's western states and established Union control of the Mississippi River.
