East Texas Regional (KGGG) and Gladewater Municipal (07F): Airports not going hog wild

QUESTION: I have heard that Gladewater sometimes has wild hogs on the runway at the airport. Do any other airports such as Longview have this problem and what can be done about it?


ANSWER: Officials with the Gladewater and Longview airports told me they do not have any ongoing, major problems with feral hogs at their airports.

“We’ve had calls ... before about wild hogs around the airport area,” said Gladewater City Manager Sean Pate. Those reports haven’t indicated they were on the runway, he said, but that doesn’t mean they haven’t been at some point. However, the hogs seem to stick close to a gully area at one end of the airport.

“There’s been a couple of people in the past that have approached us and we’ve allowed them to set hog traps on the north end,” Pate said.

At East Texas Regional Airport, Director Roy Miller said there have not been wild hogs on the airfield in a couple of years.

“Occasionally, we’ll see one out in the property beyond us,” he said, adding that the airport has a wildlife hazard management plan.

“One of the things we do is try to reduce their habitat, keep the grass cut and the fences cleared,” Miller said, sometimes trapping wild hogs or deer or other kinds of animals to keep them off the airfield.

A Federal Aviation Administration spokesman said the agency works with airports to develop wildlife management programs and provides guidelines for building fences to keep wildlife from getting onto airport property. The airports would work with wildlife biologists to determine whether animals are trapped or shot once they end up on the airfield.