If there was a time when pigs were allowed to roam free and unfettered on the Big Island, it wasn’t during the first half of this century.
A glimpse of how feral animals were managed between 1912 and 1946 can be found in The Hawaiian Planters’ Record, the journal of the Hawai’i Sugar Planters Association. In 1947, the journal published a report by L.W. Bryan, forester on the island for the territorial Board of Agriculture and Forestry.
By the end of Bryan’s term, the island contained 581,811 acres of forest reserves, of which 452,662 were owned by the territory.
Bryan writes: “The first step, after a reserve has been set aside and marked out on the ground, is to construct necessary fences on all boundaries exposed to stock,” which ranged from cattle and horses to goats, sheep and hogs. By 1947, more than 306 miles of fence protected Big Island reserves. “All of this fence must be constantly patrolled, repaired, and rebuilt as needed,” Bryan writes.
After fencing, “the next step is to attempt to remove all cattle, horses, pigs, goats, and sheep, wild or otherwise, from the reserve areas.” Over the 25 years of Bryan’s custodianship, 102,284 feral animals were killed in the reserves. That included 25,070 pigs, or just over 1,000 a year; 29,635 goats, and 47,064 sheep (almost all from Mauna Kea reserve).
Volume 10, Number 5 November 1999
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