More thoughts on winter and pigs

Now we really have a normal winter. A snowstorm followed by a frigid below-zero period. Now, to finish the cycle, a chinook.

I think I am like most folks and we welcome the warmer weather. There are still winter risks with warmer weather. The North Fork Road is more dangerous than it is at twenty below. For my money, 40 degrees means a film of water on ice and almost impossible driving conditions. Even with four-wheel drive and chains on all four wheels your control is reduced and it may be difficult to even stop, especially on even a mild slope. My rule in this kind of weather is to stay off of the road.

A chinook can also set up the possibility of an avalanche. As of today, 29 snowmobilers have died this winter. The latest was from Corvallis, Montana who died in an avalanche in Idaho. By all reports he was an experienced snowmobiler with top-notch equipment, including an air bag which he deployed and which kept him on the surface of the slide. Unfortunately, after sliding for several hundred yards he was slammed into a tree and was killed. He leaves behind a wife and five small children.

I was mildly surprised by a reader who called and wondered what I had been smoking when I commented last week about feral pigs. I referred her to the front page story in the Hungry Horse News the week before my column.

I admit my experience in Texas fueled my alarm. Feral hogs in Texas include regular pigs which have gone wild. In addition, larger wild hogs from Russia have been released and the combination is awesome. The boars sometimes reach up to 600 pounds. That is twice the size of an average grizzly bear. The pigs breed like rabbits with more than one litter per year of six to twelve little ones that grow quickly and eat a lot.

My friend in Texas showed me a large patch of ground that the pigs had plowed several inches deep, including right across his well-packed lane to the barns. He said they usually bedded down during the day but it was really dangerous for anyone on foot to disturb them. He never went out, day or night, without a rifle.

I don’t know anything about the Canadian feral pigs but I sure hope the agencies give us some information at the winter interlocal. Pigs may become more important than bears, bull trout, the road, outhouses and the river plan.

What do you think?

Larry Wilson's North Fork Views appears weekly in the Hungry Horse News.