At Forever Wild’s most recent board meeting, one of the members of the land conservation trust had a message to send. And that member happened to be Jimmy Parnell, President of the Alabama Farmer’s Federation and President and CEO of Alfa Insurance Cos.

At the meeting, held in early August on the University of South Alabama campus, the board considered advancing with the final stages of several potential land purchases. First up was a vote to proceed with a second appraisal for and purchase of a tract that board member James B. McClintock, a biology professor at UAB, described as “the last opportunity” to expand Oak Mountain State Park as development boomed nearby. The vote was overwhelmingly positive, but with a couple of “nays” including Parnell and southwest Alabama timber and cattle farmer Jake Harper, who has held regional and county positions in the Farmer’s Federation, and who joined the Forever Wild Board in 2022.

Next up was a move for a first appraisal on a tract that could expand Historic Blakeley State Park by 81.5 acres. Eleven voted in favor, Parnell voted against. Then a similar motion for a first appraisal on a potential addition to Cathedral Caverns State Park. Again, a lone nay from Parnell.

A few minutes later, having gotten the attention of the room, Parnell shared the reason for his stance.

“I think probably most that have observed realize that I’m kind of against us buying more land because I don’t think we’re taking care of our current property,” he said. “I get complaints on a regular basis about Forever Wild land being an incubator for wild hogs. I would ask to make a motion that staff do some research and come up with us a wild hog eradication program that would be extremely aggressive on Forever Wild so that I don’t have to hear about Forever Wild being the source of the wild hog problem across Alabama.”

Chris Blankenship, the commissioner of the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (ADCNR) and the chair of the Forever Wild board, thanked Parnell and acknowledged the feral swine problem as an ongoing concern. Forever Wild and ADCNR were making significant efforts to control hog populations, he said, adding that he would have numbers compiled for the board. He described the swine control effort as “important work that our staff is doing,” but agreed with Parnell that there was room for improvement.

Later in the meeting, Blankenship offered some rough numbers. “This year so far somewhere between 700 to 800 wild hogs have been trapped and removed from Forever Wild properties,” he said, attributing the effort to multiple agencies.

Board member Karen Stanley, from Huntsville, asked how many that was in context. “It’s not enough,” said Blankenship. “I would say, It’s not half. It is making a dent, but … We’re like every other landowner in south Alabama that is struggling with wild feral swine.”

The discussion raised the disconcerting possibility that feral swine, the guests absolutely nobody wants at their party, could put Forever Wild at odds with the Alabama Farmer’s Federation.

Since being founded through a constitutional amendment in 1992, the Forever Wild Land Trust has worked to buy land from willing landowners, mainly using the interest on money from offshore natural gas royalties. The program isn’t funded through General Fund tax revenue. According to www.alabamaforeverwild.com, it has brought well over a quarter of a million acres into public conservation, with obvious benefits to the public, creating “more than 363 miles of recreational trails within 23 new recreation areas and nature preserves, while providing additions to 9 state parks and 20 Wildlife Management Areas.” It says that 94% of Forever Wild land is open to some form of public hunting.

The Alabama Farmer’s Federation and Alfa Insurance comprise one of the heavyweight political forces in the state, which Chilton County farmer Parnell has led since 2012. He joined the Forever Wild board in early 2023. According to alfafarmers.org, he was appointed by Lt. Gov. Will Ainsworth, who praised his dedication to “facing issues with a commonsense approach.”

“The Forever Wild board also demands someone who understands and promotes responsible land management,” said Ainsworth. For his part, Parnell said at the time that “Forever Wild was originally intended to protect distinctive and environmentally sensitive land in Alabama. We want to ensure Forever Wild stays true to its purpose. We take seriously our responsibility to use the land and use it well.”

Alfa has a reputation for pursuing the interests of its 340,000 members. And for many of those, wild hogs are a serious concern. One researcher working on the problem, Auburn University professor Mark Smith, has said feral swine do an estimated $50 million in agricultural damage every year in Alabama. That doesn’t count the environmental damage they do to sensitive lands and waterways (including the ones Forever Wild is trying to conserve), or the impact they have on native species.

Wild pigs are tough, fast, wary and omnivorous, not to mention astoundingly fecund. They tend to cover a home range of several square miles but will roam much farther depending on conditions. So it’s easy to see how they would exploit any refuge available, whether it might belong to a private landowner or a public land trust, and use it as a home base while marauding on the surrounding countryside.

Since Parnell fired his warning shot across Forever Wild’s bow, Alfa has offered a more moderate position, however. And Blankenship has expanded on his take that Forever Wild is doing a lot to address the issue but will do more in the future.

William Green, the forestry and wildlife director for the Farmer’s Federation, was among those at the meeting. He also has extensive experience working with landowners on feral hog control.

“Everywhere I go, usually the conversation goes back to, ‘What are we doing about pigs?’” Green said. “It’s not a favorite topic, by any means, but it is one I get quite often.”

It’s not that Forever Wild has a pig problem, Green said. It’s that Alabama has a pig problem.

“Pigs are everywhere. Found in every county in the state, the southern half of the state has got it a little bit worse than the northern end, but I’m hearing more and more reports out of northwest Alabama from our farmers that pigs are getting worse,” he said. “Are there pigs on public land? Sure. There’s no doubt in my mind. But absentee landowners also play a role in that. If there not working to do it together with everybody else, then it really is hard to get a handle on the problem.”

“They’re kind of a perfect storm in terms of an invasive species,” he said. Green described wild pigs as opportunistic eaters that breed early, produce big litters and face no natural predators in Alabama, leaving them free to trash everything from pine seedlings to row crops. “They are at the all-you-can-eat buffet,” he said.

There are those who really enjoy hunting them, and “that’s a piece of the puzzle,” Green said. By and large, however, he says there’s a consensus that there’s nothing good about wild swine. “What we do know is, when you remove pigs from the landscape, our native species do better,” he said. “Whether that’s turkeys or quail or even deer.”

“In the grand scheme of things, pigs are everywhere,” he said. “Should we be focusing more efforts on controlling pigs on public lands? Sure. Absolutely. Totally agree. But the same could be said, and maybe even more importantly, that neighbors should be helping each other, too. We’re all together in this.”

Ultimately, he said, the solution isn’t putting blame on public lands. It’s for all landowners to step up and do their part. “I can’t speak exactly for him,” he said of Parnell, “but I would say that from conversations he and I have had, that everybody’s on the same page of trying to make sure we have a coordinated effort. … I know we’ve got [Forever Wild] people out there working on it, good employees that are working hard to do it. But it’s a complex problem, it’s hard.”

Blankenship seconded that view.

“It’s a problem all over the state with wild hogs,” he said. And Forever Wild is trying to do be a good neighbor. “We’ve removed over a thousand wild hogs from Forever Wild properties this year,” he said.

“Like every other landowner we have to balance how much time we can spend on that versus proscribed fire and timber management and all the other parts of land management,” he said. “But we are doing trapping and removals on the property.”

“We are also looking at other options we have on those properties,” Blankenship said. “It may be more cost-effective for us to contract that out and have a company come in and concentrate on some of those properties for a little while and be more impactful and that’s what we’re looking to do.”

Blankenship said he aims to give the board an update at its November meeting, “with some options on how much they would like to see done and an approximate cost for that.”

He said he doesn’t see the issue disrupting Forever Wild’s ability to carry out purchases.

“I don’t see a concerted slowdown on the process,” he said. “A lot of it depends on what properties are nominated. … The quality of properties are what’s important.”

Related:

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Wild hogs wreaking havoc on Alabama wildlife

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