Wild pigs a problem in South Mississippi

State lawmakers hope legislation would help fight flourishing herds.

Feral pigs are smelly, aggressive and threatening. And their numbers are growing in South Mississippi.

Boars and sows are coming into urban neighborhoods, causing damage in cities and increasing erosion the banks of the Pascagoula River, the last large free-flowing river in the lower 48 states.

Five years ago, the U.S. Department of Agriculture would get a call a week, but now it gets almost a call a day, said Scott Alls, a district supervisor for nuisance animals.

"Pigs are the big topic nowadays with all the damage they do," Alls said. "They're not native. Kind of like Cogongrass, they take over."

Rep. Richard Bennett, R-Long Beach, has helped introduce a bill in the state Legislature to add feral hogs to the state beaver control program. And Sen. Michael Watson, R-Pascagoula, noted on Facebook he hopes such legislation would help the problem along the Pascagoula River.

In groups, the animals destroy habitat and can uproot hundreds of acres of sensitive bottomland as they forage for roots and grubs.

Mark LaSalle, director of the Pascagoula River Audubon Center in Moss Point, said the pigs tear up the river's banks as well, escalating erosion.

City pigs

"But we've had pig damage reported in the city limits of Gulfport, in the city of Gautier," Alls said Thursday. "We've had them in Bay St. Louis. At the Hollywood Casino, we've had pig issues there. Stennis Space Center has a pig problem. Diamondhead is having issues with pigs right now."

He said the pigs in Diamondhead have been coming into yards, tearing into lawns searching for grubs. They are also damaging ditches and rights of way, he said.

"It's widespread," he said, citing cases in Petal and Purvis.

"It's not unique to South Mississippi, it's statewide," he said, adding there also has been national attention given to pig issues.

Twenty years ago, feral pigs were in about 10 states, he said. Now they are in 40.

Open season

Property owners are allowed to shoot them on their properties. Public land is a little tricky. Hunters can shoot them during any hunting season with whatever weapon is legal for the animal that is in season. For example, they could use a .22-caliber during squirrel season.

And on the 13,500 acres of the Ward Bayou Wildlife Management Area east of Vancleave along the Pascagoula River in 2012, managers calculated hunters killed 350 to 400 or more feral pigs during the six months of the various hunting seasons.

McCoy's Swamp Tours on the Pascagoula River often spots wild hogs along the river's banks. The animals can swim and they like the soft, moist ground of the bottomland hardwood forests in the river basin.

These feral pigs reproduce often, beginning at a young age. Wildlife experts estimate they would have to kill or capture 80 percent of the pigs a year to keep the population from growing.

Shrewd, mean adversary

And they're smart. If they've been trapped by a corral, for example, and get away, they learn from the experience and avoid corrals in the future. They also avoid coming out in the day during hunting seasons.

LaSalle said he encountered a large hog last summer while working on warbler boxes on Ward Bayou near Vancleave.

"Walking along the banks of the bayou, we noticed signs of a hog," he said. "It looks like someone has plowed the ground, like a herd of cattle has come through. And you see droppings as well.

"It was late, about 6 p.m. I surprised one. It was asleep, maybe 50 feet away," he said. "I'm on the bank, and here's the hog. He woke up, snorted and I snorted back at him and he went one way and I went another."

He said he was lucky he didn't have to "go swimming" to avoid it.

"Luckily, it was only one," he said. "I advise people to 'get yourself a stick and go in the opposite direction,' because those things are mean."

Read more here:
http://www.sunherald.com/2013/02/21/4483275/wild-pigs-a-growing-problem-in.html#storylink=cpy

Mississippi officially ratifies amendment abolishing slavery

It's already embarrassing that Mississippi didn't ratify the 13th Amendment (the one that, you know, abolishes slavery) until 1995.

It's even more embarrassing that the Magnolia State didn't officially ratify the amendment until now, almost 150 years after Congress voted for it.

Back in '95 the state never properly notified the U.S. Archivist about the ratification, so it was never official.

This apparent clerical blunder wasn't spotted until Dr. Ranjan Batra, an associate professor at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, saw "Lincoln" and wondered what happened when the states voted on ratification.

The right paperwork was filed and on February 7, 2013 Mississippi officially ratified the 13th Amendment.

"It was long overdue," admitted Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann.
No kidding.

Chilly in the South

It is chilly, sunny and breezy in South Mississippi and its going to be like this for the next couple of days. We have not had the good hard freeze yet, the last one was a few years ago. The sunsets have been beautiful.

Tornado

HATTIESBURG -- A tornado passed through the heart of Hattiesburg on Sunday as part of a wave of severe storms that caused injuries and significant damage in the area, including the University of Southern Mississippi campus.

Greg Flynn of the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency said Forrest County officials estimate that the tornado damaged several hundred homes.

Forrest County Sheriff Billy McGee says 10 or 15 people were injured by the tornado -- but none of the injuries was serious.

"Most of our injuries have been walking wounded," he said.

McGee says rescue workers were going house-to-house to check on people and make sure nobody was trapped.

Pictures posted on Facebook by WDAM in Hattiesburg showed rows of trees flattened in the Oak Grove area and damage to commercial buildings. Residents have reported the high school stadium heavily damaged.

The storm passed along Hardy Street, one of the city's main roadways.

"We had a tornado touch down. We have a lot of damage," said Kyle Hopkins, operations director for Forrest County emergency operations.

The university released a statement saying several buildings had been damaged but that no injuries were reported. Campus police have declared a state of emergency and asked anyone not on campus to stay away.

Cody Shook, 30, was in Petal on his way home to a pregnant girlfriend near Interstate 59 in Hattiesburg when he and a friend experienced the tornado, he told the Sun Herald Sunday night.

"I was thinking it was nothing serious. We'd had a couple of scares before," Shook said. "Then we encountered it on 4th Street. Literally the stop sign was ripped from the ground concrete and all, about 100 yards in front of us. "My friend was driving. We pulled into the first driveway we could," Shook said.

They watched the storm peel roofs from houses and snap what he estimated to be 80-year-old oak trees in front of them.

"Pieces of houses were flying around," he said. "It was very scary. It caused two grown men to hug after that and say I'm glad we're alright."

It skipped his home, but damaged homes two streets over on Berkshire Street, not far from Hardy Street, he said.

Jason Leviere, owner of Click Boutique, told the Sun Herald late Sunday that he had been shopping in west Hattiesburg at the Turtle Creek Mall when the sirens went off. At first he thought it might have been a drill because of the high wind and heavy rain. He returned home in downtown and experienced the tornado there. He said it sounded very much like a train. But his home and business appeared to be undamaged.

"It all happened pretty fast," he said. "It came out of nowhere."

He said a network of business owners were calling each other trying to assess the situation. Through that he learned that a neighborhood behind the Crescent City Grill on Hardy Street was damaged.

He said the first damage he heard about was in the Oak Grove community west of Hattiesburg and in the Lake Serene subdivision, then he believes the tornado moved along U.S. 98 toward the Hattiesburg business district, a high traffic area on Sundays, he said.

"It jumped the Caliente Grille and hit the USM campus," he said. "The university is just a mess.

"After USM, it headed downtown and hit two blocks from us," he said. At the corner of West 4th and Main streets, it destroyed a gas station.

"So there's a lot of gas fumes outside right now," he said at about 8:30 p.m. "They're asking people not to light candles, to please use flashlights.

"I'm at my business right now, because there are a lot of people walking the streets and there are police cars circling with spotlights," he said. "I think they're afraid of looting.

"I have to say, it's amazing already to see everyone come together as a community," he said. "The phone chain starts, everyone's checking on each other and springing into action."

Harrison and Jackson counties, as well as Stone, Wayne, Perry and George counties were under a tornado watch for much of the afternoon and evening on Sunday.

Flynn says the same twister apparently hit Marion and Lamar counties but did much less damage. He says storm damage also was reported in Lawrence County and a tornado touchdown in Wayne County, near Waynesboro.

Flynn says initial reports are that nearly 20 homes were hit hard in Marion County and several in Lamar County.He says thunderstorms stayed over the area, adding water damage to the wind damage.

Marion County emergency director Aaron Greer reported three injuries in the community of Pickwick, about seven miles south of Columbia. He said one person was taken to a hospital by ambulance, another by Triple-A, and the third person was not treated.

Greer says one mobile home was destroyed, three other structures have major damage and two or three have minor damage.

National Weather Service meteorologist Joanne Culin says there also have been reports of injuries in Marion County.

Mississippi's mobile command center has been sent to Hattiesburg, and all of MEMA's area coordinators from north of Interstate 20 have been sent to the counties with damage.

Gov. Phil Bryant said he planned to visit the storm-damaged areas today. Bryant declared a state of emergency later Sunday evening.

The National Weather Service says bad weather is likely to stretch into Fat Tuesday for southeast Louisiana. Jefferson Parish has canceled a Monday night parade.

Staff writer Karen Nelson contributed to this report.

Read more here: http://www.sunherald.com/2013/02/10/4460169/tornado-hits-heart-of-hattiesburg.html#storylink=cpy

Rainy few days.

We had some rain last week. One night it rained pretty heavy. A few days later most of the drains on the side of the road were still pretty full and moving fast.

Today is nice but we are expecting 4 days of rain starting tomorrow. It will be a wet Mardi gras Monday and Tuesday.

WWII vet gets Mardi Gras birthday tribute in Long Beach

LONG BEACH -- Retired Army Staff Sergeant Charles B. Kelly celebrated his 93rd birthday with all the pomp and circumstance a native-born war hero could ask for Saturday at the head of the Long Beach Carnival Association's Mardi Gras parade. Kelly served in World War II in Gen. George Patton's 7th Armored Division, known as the Lucky 7th Armored. Kelly was in the Battle of St. Vith, which was part of the Battle of the Bulge, in the Ruhr Valley, Germany.

"He is an amazing hero," said Bob Lankford, who provided a Willys military jeep to convey Kelly in the parade. "He was in the most crucial campaign of World War II under the greatest general we've ever had."

Kelly is a lifelong resident of Long Beach and has been married to his wife, Lois Kelly, for 69 years. State Rep. Richard Bennett stopped by to visit with Kelly just before the parade started to wish him a happy birthday and thank him for his service. Bennett said it was his intention to introduce a proclamation in the Mississippi House recognizing Kelly's contributions.

Kelly was escorted by the Keesler Air Force Base Honor Guard and the Pass Christian and Bay St. Louis high schools' Air Force Jr. ROTC Honor Guard. He rode with his Pass Christian High ROTC sponsors, 1st Lt. Jacob Huffman and Maj. Darryl Doukas.

"We are honored to pay tribute to such a deserving World War II hero veteran in our City's Mardi Gras parade," Mayor Billie Skellie said in a statement.

Read more here: http://www.sunherald.com/2013/02/02/4444652/wwii-vet-gets-mardi-gras-birthday.html#storylink=cpy