Sierra Club Archives - Missourinet

Missouri House votes to give final approval to feral hog legislation; bill to be tweaked in Senate

April 30, 2021 By Brian Hauswirth

Legislation boosting criminal penalties for those who knowingly release feral hogs into the wild is heading to the Missouri Senate, after receiving final House approval on Thursday. The bipartisan vote was 108-38.

State Rep. Don Rone (R-Portageville), who chairs the Missouri House Agriculture Policy Committee, speaks on the House floor on April 27, 2021 (photo courtesy of Tim Bommel at House Communications)

House Bill 508 is sponsored by State Rep. Don Rone (R-Portageville), who chairs the Missouri House Agriculture Policy Committee. State Rep. Tracy McCreery (D-Olivette), the committee’s ranking Democrat, urged her colleagues to vote for the bill.

“When you have groups like the (Missouri) Farm Bureau and the (Missouri) Department of Conservation and soybeans and corn all working together and saying let’s give this a try. Let’s do everything we can do to help eradicate an invasive species,” McCreery says.

The Sierra Club also backs the bill.

Feral hogs are a major issue across southern Missouri, especially in and near the Mark Twain National Forest. Governor Parson has been warning that feral hogs are a danger to the state and pose serious safety risks to residents.

State Rep. Scott Cupps (R-Cassville), who voted for the bill, tells colleagues that it will be tweaked in the Senate to address concerns from some House members.

“There is an agreement to change the first offense from a felony to a misdemeanor. So the first offense will be a misdemeanor and then upon a second offense, it will be a (class E) felony,” says Cupps, who chairs the House subcommittee on appropriations for Agriculture, Conservation and Natural Resources.

The bill is also backed by the Missouri Parks Association (MPA), which says some residents are transporting and releasing feral hogs on public land. MPA says feral hogs are destroying Missouri’s native ecosystems, and have damaged the Taum Sauk, Roaring River and St. Francois state parks.

Governor Parson met in late March in Jefferson City with U.S. Rep. Jason Smith (R-Salem), Missouri Department of Conservation Director Sara Parker-Pauley, the United States Department of Agriculture, the U.S. Forest Service and state lawmakers like State Sen. Jason Bean (R-Holcomb), about the feral hog issue.

Congressman Smith, who represents 30 southern Missouri counties, says the majority of the feral hogs in Missouri are in his 8th Congressional District.

“We hope to have them eradicated one day, they’re awful. The best feral hog is a dead feral hog,” Smith told Missourinet in late March.

DNR: Missouri’s soil and water conservation tax has improved more than five million acres

June 6, 2020 By Brian Hauswirth

The state Department of Natural Resources (DNR) credits Missouri’s soil and water conservation tax and program for reducing soil erosion, and for improving more than five million acres.

Missouri Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Director Carol Comer listens to testimony at the Joint Committee on Agriculture hearing on May 28, 2020 in Jefferson City (photo courtesy of Tim Bommel at House Communications)

DNR agricultural liaison Kurt Boeckmann tells the Joint Committee on Agriculture that a one-tenth-of-one-percent parks, soils and water sales tax was first approved by Missouri voters 36 years ago.

“In every county in Missouri, there are 114 districts, one in each county, and those districts provide technical assistance and cost-share that is generated through that sales tax,” Boeckmann testifies recently.

Missouri voters approved a constitutional amendment for a one-tenth-of-one-percent sales tax for parks, soil and water conservation in 1984. Voters have overwhelmingly renewed the tax four times, with the last one happening in 2016.

DNR credits soil and water conservation programs for helping Missouri landowners keep 186-million tons of soil from eroding into our waterways, since 1984. Mr. Boeckmann testifies the tax has been crucial.

“Most of the practices that are offered through this program are practices that are benefiting the soil loss that we have … over 255,000 contracts have been offered to landowners,” says Boeckmann.

The majority of the soil and water portion of the tax has been used to assist farmers through voluntary programs that are developed by the Soil and Water Districts Commission.

The tax has historically received bipartisan support and is backed by both Missouri Farm Bureau and the Sierra Club.

“So it’s extremely important to anybody who uses our park system, our beautiful parks system, or anybody who drinks water in the state of Missouri, because this (tax) makes a real difference in both preserving our soil and protecting our water supply,” Missouri Farm Bureau President Blake Hurst told Missourinet in 2016, just before the election.