The U.S. Department of Agriculture opened a new $35 million funding round July 23 for coordinated feral swine control, but Fisher and Stonewall counties are not among the 10 Texas counties on USDA's published 2026 project list.
The Natural Resources Conservation Service lists four Texas pilot areas: Brown, Coleman, and Runnels counties; Fannin, Lamar, and Red River counties; Knox, Haskell, and Baylor counties; and Sherman County.
That makes Haskell County, immediately east of Stonewall County, the closest listed project area.
The county list matters because this is not a statewide program that individual producers can apply to directly. The funding notice seeks eligible organizations to carry out work in pilot areas USDA identified in consultation with state technical committees. Applications close Sept. 21.
USDA's published notice and project page do not explain why Fisher and Stonewall counties were not included or whether project boundaries could expand after awards are made. Their absence from the list also does not establish that feral hog damage is absent locally. The federal materials provide no current damage estimate for either county.
A BIGGER PROGRAM, AND TWO NEW STATES The $35 million round is part of a broader $105 million investment split between NRCS and USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. Congress reauthorized the pilot program in Public Law 119-21, the tax and spending law signed in July 2025, and the funding notice says money is available through fiscal year 2031.
NRCS Chief Colton L. Buckley said in the announcement that feral swine cause more than $3.4 billion in damage each year nationally. He credited the new law, which he called the Working Families Tax Cuts Act, with allowing the agency to expand the effort. The same law is more commonly known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, and USDA's own funding notice cites it by both that name and its public law number.
Partners may apply for projects in 14 states. Twelve of them, including Texas, have hosted pilot projects since 2020. California and Tennessee are new to the program this round.
NRCS says it has obligated more than $41 million for 34 feral swine pilot projects since 2020, assisting more than 6,700 landowners on almost 9 million acres and delivering more than 800 trapping-technique training events.
WHAT THE GRANTS WOULD FUND NRCS money may support trap-loan programs, trapping equipment, landowner training, on-farm trapping conducted under APHIS standards, and restoration of damaged land. For the Knox-Haskell-Baylor project, USDA expects the selected partner to deliver traps, help landowners set them, provide initial bait, collect damage and trapping data, and coordinate with APHIS Wildlife Services.
The rules also draw a line around what the money cannot buy. NRCS funding cannot pay for lethal removal, including ground shooting, aerial gunning, euthanasia, or any other form of hunting. It also cannot cover drones, snares, cable restraints, foot holds, relocation, frightening devices, immobilization, repellents, reproductive inhibitors, or toxicants. It cannot pay landowners to hire independent third-party trappers.
Removal is not excluded from the larger program. USDA splits the work into separate components: APHIS handles feral swine removal, while NRCS grants support restoration and producer assistance. The funding notice states that no trapping activities can be planned or conducted without APHIS involvement.
Individual farmers, ranchers, and landowners cannot submit the federal application themselves. Eligible applicants include county and municipal governments, special district governments, state governments, tribal governments and organizations, nonprofit organizations, and public or private institutions of higher education. For-profit companies and foreign organizations are not eligible, and applications must come from a single entity rather than a partnership, though partners may receive subawards.
Producers who receive payments through a funded project face their own requirements. They must control the land for the life of the project, must have adjusted gross income of no more than $900,000, and cannot be paid for a practice already funded through another USDA conservation program such as the Conservation Reserve Program or the Environmental Quality Incentives Program.
USDA expects to make as many as 25 awards ranging from $75,000 to $3 million. Federal funding may cover up to 75% of a project's cost, with the partner supplying the remaining 25% in non-federal cash or in-kind contributions, and every project must include some cash. NRCS anticipates announcing selections Oct. 23 and expects awards to begin in December. Applicants are told to plan projects of four to five years.
WHAT EARLIER TEXAS PROJECTS FOUND The Texas State Soil and Water Conservation Board led the state's earlier work under the program, partnering with 15 local soil and water conservation districts and nine wildlife damage management specialists hired through Texas A&M AgriLife Extension. Districts bought corral-style traps fitted with motion-detection cameras and remote activation, then loaned them to producers. Seventy- five traps went to more than 150 landowners, and each loan came with up to 100 pounds of corn at no cost.
USDA's final report on that program says Texas landowner agreements with APHIS Wildlife Services rose from 293 in 2020 to 580 in 2023, and crop damage among landowners receiving APHIS removal fell from 15% to 4% between 2019 and 2022. The Texas projects reached 703 landowners across 2,300,860 acres and averted more than $10.1 million in damage.
In one case the work went further. The report says the partnership announced that feral swine no longer inhabit Dallam County, in the northwest corner of the Panhandle.
Elsewhere, complete eradication proved harder. The same report says feral swine were eliminated on 11 Texas landowner agreements as of 2023.
The report cites research estimating 2.6 million feral swine in Texas, and says the Texas A&M Department of Agricultural Economics reported in 2020 that total agricultural damage in the state exceeded $100 million a year, with some studies pointing as high as $230 million. One of the earlier Texas project areas covered Hardeman, Wilbarger, Wichita, and Clay counties, directly north of the Knox-Haskell- Baylor area now advertised.
WHAT HAPPENS NEXT
NRCS will hold a webinar for prospective applicant organizations from 3 to 4 p.m. Eastern time Aug. 20. A first session was held July 29, and NRCS says both will be recorded and posted to the program webpage.
Applications close at 11:59 p.m. Eastern time Sept. 21 through Grants.gov under funding opportunity number USDA-NRCS-NHQFSCP- 26-NOFO0001453. Questions about preparing an application go to grants management specialist Sarah Trumbull at sarah.trumbull@usda.gov. The notice instructs applicants not to contact program staff directly.