Southwest Florida Water Management District land managers plan to hold a series of hog hunts on District land this fall and winter to help reduce the wild hog population.
Beginning at 9 a.m. on Oct. 12, prospective hunters can purchase permits for these hunts on the District’s web site at WaterMatters.org/hoghunts/. Permits will be available on a first-come, first-served basis through 5 p.m. on Oct. 26, or until they are sold out. The cost is $50 for each permit.
Wild hogs, which are not native to Florida, feed by rooting with their broad snouts and can leave an area looking like a plowed field.
The District allows hogs to be controlled through hunts when the damage they cause is at unacceptable levels. Damage from hogs is occurring more frequently and with increasing severity.
Here’s where and when the hunts will be held:
Starkey Wilderness Preserve
Pasco County
Dec. 1 – 3 and Feb. 9 – 11
Green Swamp Wilderness Preserve, Hampton Tract
Polk County
Dec. 8 – 10, Feb. 2 – 4, and March 2 – 4
Conner Preserve
Pasco County
Feb. 16 – 18
Hálpata Tastanaki Preserve
Marion County
Feb. 23 – 25
Upper Hillsborough, Alston Tract
Pasco and Polk counties
Nov. 17 – 19 and Jan. 19 – 21
Lower Hillsborough, Wilderness Preserve
Hillsborough County
Jan. 26 – 28, March 23 – 25
The District-managed properties will be temporarily closed to the public during the hog hunts. Only permitted hunters will be allowed access.
In addition to obtaining a permit online, maps and hunting rules of the areas where the hunts will take place are available on the District’s web site.
This is the second consecutive year for the hunts. Last year’s hunts removed hundreds of hogs from seven different tracts of land throughout the District.