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Rep. Rob Clifton presents bill to ease feral-hog controls, allow drones on private property
Summary
Rep. Rob Clifton told the Natural Resources and the Environment committee the bill would remove seasons, permits and licenses for taking feral hogs and allow use of personal drones on private property to locate animals; committee members asked DNR about expanding language to other invasive species and agreed to return with amendments.
Rep. Rob Clifton introduced House Bill 946 to the Natural Resources and the Environment committee, saying the measure would "make it much easier" for landowners to locate and kill feral hogs and would permit personal drones on private property for that purpose.
Clifton framed the problem as severe for farmers and landowners, citing an estimate from UGA Extension that "an estimated $150,000,000" in damage occurs annually and later offering a larger transcribed figure he described as "somewhere between $202,150,000,000." He told the committee "this is the feral hog bill" and said the draft deletes regulatory words so "there is no season, there's no permit required, there's no license." He added the draft would allow shooting from motorized vehicles, which he said would include helicopters if the bill is enacted.
Why it matters: Committee members said repeated crop and pasture damage forces farmers to replant and shoulder significant costs. Several senators said the bill would help producers who face recurring losses when hogs root up fields.
DNR officials at the hearing — Trevor Santos and Dr. Joe Hanson of the Wildlife Resources Division — told the committee the bill as written applies only to feral hogs but that the language could be broadened. "As the bill is currently worded right now, it only applies to feral hogs," Hanson said, and he confirmed that coyotes are treated by DNR as an invasive species; the agency suggested wording that would apply to other invasive predators if the committee wished.
Committee direction and next steps: The chair asked Clifton to return with an amended bill that would consider adding counties and possibly replace the specific reference to "feral hogs" with broader "invasive species" language to cover coyotes and other species like armadillos. Clifton agreed to revise the draft and come back to the committee.
Clarifying details drawn from the hearing: Clifton cited UGA Extension's $150 million figure for annual agricultural damage (2020). The transcript also records a markedly larger figure attributed to Clifton that appears inconsistent with the Extension citation; that larger number is reported here as a claim made during the hearing, not an independently verified statistic. DNR said the bill limits drones to private property and excludes federal lands and WMAs.
The committee did not take a vote; members asked Clifton to produce a revised draft for future consideration.
