SARASOTA COUNTY — County commissioners approved a controversial pilot hunting program Tuesday aimed at reducing the abundant feral hog population that’s destroying vegetation, crops and wildlife at Deer Prairie Creek Preserve near North Port.

After listening to residents, who mostly opposed the way the hogs would be hunted for two, three-day periods, commissioners voted 4-1, with Jon Thaxton dissenting, to go ahead with the hunt on the 6,440-acre preserve and the nearby 1,722-acre Schewe tract.