Feral Hogs in Dallas County w Brett Johnson

Wednesday, April 8, 2020 

Announcements begin at 7 pm. Speaker begins at approximately 7:30 pm. Applicable for 1 hour AT; select AT:NTX:Chapter Meeting.

LOCATION: Online with Zoom

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Feral hogs cause millions of dollars in damage statewide. Even urban Dallas is no exception. Feral hogs have torn up golf courses, ripped up the banks of ponds and waterways, devastated nesting ground birds and mammal dens, and caused general widespread destruction, especially to watersheds. The Great Trinity Forest, Trinity River, and lower White Rock Creek are favorite targets of feral hogs.

City of Dallas urban biologist Brett Johnson is on the front lines of feral hog containment. In his talk for NTMN, he will discuss the learning curve taken as he determined which methods were the most effective and humane, where damage by hogs is most widespread and where they are expanding into, and how he selects areas to focus the city’s limited resources. Learn about the biology of feral hogs and how they came to the U.S., their preferred habitats and incredible reproduction rate, and why hunting hogs is ineffective. This presentation is greatly updated from what Johnson gave in 2016.

For more information on feral hogs:

Texas A&M AgriLife Extension’s page Coping with Feral Hogs

WFAA feature: Feral hogs threaten Big Spring in Dallas

D magazine feature: Dallas’ Feral Hogs Are in Your Backyard 

Brett Johnson bio:

Brett grew up in the Dallas area and became interested in conservation while in the Boy Scouts. Brett earned a BS in Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences at Texas A&M University, and an MS in Interdisciplinary Studies at Texas Tech. After graduating from college, he worked a variety of field tech jobs like working with the endangered Florida key deer, wildfire ecology and damage recovery, and his personal passion, black bears in New Mexico.

For nearly 12 years, he was an Urban Wildlife Biologist with Texas Parks and Wildlife Department where he became well known for speaking on urban wildlife issues, especially coyotes and cattle egrets. In November of 2015, he became the Senior Environmental Coordinator/Urban Biologist for the Dallas Park and Recreation Department where he oversees the department’s feral hog abatement program, pollinator conservation initiatives, prairie management plan, and forest ecology related recommendations on park property.

He is an Eagle Scout and serves as cubmaster for a Cub Scout pack in Grand Prairie.