NBCI's Bobwhite Almanac, State of the Bobwhite 2013

Bobwhite

NBCI’s

State of the
Bobwhite 2013

Almanac

South Carolina Launches
New Initiative

The Bobwhite
Brigade
Federal Agriculture Policy &
The Future of Bobwhites

Forest Management
One of the Best Bets for Bob
Arkansas’ Ouachita NF
Virginia’s Pine BMPs
Alabama’s Barbour WMA

Bobwhite

NBCI’s

Almanac

State of the Bobwhite

2013

© National Bobwhite Conservation Initiative. 2013. D.F. McKenzie, T.V. Dailey, K.M. Puckett, K.A. Brazil, M.W. Black, and J. G.
Doty. NBCI’s Bobwhite Almanac, State of the Bobwhite 2013. National Bobwhite Technical Committee Technical Publication,
Knoxville, TN. 46 pages.

NBCI’s Bobwhite Almanac/State of the Bobwhite Report is an annual publication of the
National Bobwhite Conservation Initiative (NBCI) to provide a range-wide snapshot of
population, hunting and conservation status of the northern bobwhite, Colinus virginianus,
as well as a sampling of major efforts underway to reverse the bobwhite decline. This report
is made possible by the financial support of participating state agencies, the National Fish &
Wildlife Foundation, and the University of Tennessee.
NBCI is an initiative by and for the National Bobwhite Technical Committee—25 state wildlife management agencies, along
with numerous conservation groups, research institutions and federal partners—to provide national leadership, coordination and
capacity to catalyze large-scale, strategic restoration of native habitats as the long-term means to restore widespread populations
of wild bobwhite quail and, consequently, other species dependent on native grassland habitat. NBCI is headquartered at the
University of Tennessee.

NBCI Staff

NBCI State Quail Coordinators

Director
Don McKenzie

Communications Director
John Doty
Editorial Assistant/Graphics
Heather Inman

NBTC Steering Committee

Chairman
Marc Puckett, Virginia Department of Game & Inland Fisheries
Chair-Elect
Chuck Kowaleski, Texas Parks & Wildlife Department
Past Chair
Dan Figert, Kentucky Department of Fish & Wildlife Resources
Craig Alderman, Quail & Upland Wildlife Federation
Dr. Leonard Brennan, Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute
Andrew Burnett, New Jersey Division of Fish & Wildlife
Larry Heggemann, Central Hardwoods Joint Venture
Dr. Pat Keyser, Center for Native Grasslands Management
Don McKenzie, National Bobwhite Conservation Initiative
Catherine Rideout, Southeast Partners in Flight

Missouri
Max Alleger
Nebraska
Jeff Lusk
New Jersey
Andrew Burnett

Georgia
James Tomberlin
Reggie E. Thackston

Agriculture Policy Coordinator
Kyle Brazil

Arkansas
Clifton Jackson

Florida
Greg Hagan

Forestry Coordinator
Mike Black

Mississippi
Rick Hamrick

Delaware
Matt DiBona

Science Coordinator/Assistant Director
Dr. Thomas Dailey

Alabama
Carrie Threadgill

North Carolina
Mark Jones

Illinois
Mike Wefer
Indiana
N. Budd Veverka
Iowa
Todd Bogenschutz
Kansas
Jeffrey Prendergast
Jim Pitman
Kentucky
John Morgan
Louisiana
Jimmy Stafford
Jeff Duguay
Maryland
Bob Long

Nathan Stricker, Ohio Department of Natural Resources
Reggie Thackston, Georgia Department of Natural Resources
Jim Wooley, Quail Forever

Oklahoma
Jena Donnell
Pennsylvania
Scott Klinger
South Carolina
Billy Dukes
Tennessee
Roger Applegate
Texas
Robert Perez
Virginia
Marc Puckett
Jay Howell
West Virginia
Keith Krantz

COVER PHOTO: Our sincere thanks to wildlife biologist
and photographer Dr. John Brunjes, KY Department of Fish
and Wildlife Resources, for his cover photo contribution
(www.johnbrunjes.com).

www.bringbackbobwhites.org
2 • NBCI’s Bobwhite Almanac

Ohio
Nathan Stricker

TABLE OF CONTENTS
P. 4
Introduction

P. 20
Federal Agriculture Policy

P. 6
Quail Tracks

P. 22
Show Me the Quail!

P. 8
South Carolina
Launching Broad Push for
Wild Bobwhites . . .

P. 24
The Bobwhite Brigade

Forest Management
P. 10
One of the Best Bets for Bob
P. 13
Arkansas’ Ouachita NF
P. 16
Virginia’s Pine BMPs

P. 26
State Conservation
Reports
P. 40
NBCI Adds Ranches,
Plantations to Inventory
P. 46
NBCI State Agencies List &
Acronyms

P. 18

State of the Bobwhite 2013 • 3

T

INTRODUCTION
his 3rd annual State of the Bobwhite marks a notable year. Last year was the 10-year anniversary
of the NBCI; thus, 2013 effectively is the first year of the second decade of concerted, range-wide
bobwhite conservation in the US.

If that note sounds anti-climactic, consider that this introduction to our 2012 Almanac ended with:
“The big question for the next 10 years is whether the [National Bobwhite Technical Committee] and the entire
bobwhite community can muster the resolve, demonstrate the leadership, combine our resources, and build the
effective teamwork—up, down and across the board—that is essential for our ultimate success.”
This year, 2013, begins that next 10 years, during which the bobwhite community will answer that big question.
The bobwhite restoration movement continues to build range-wide momentum on myriad fronts:
•

The NBCI is increasing partnerships—
o The Habitat Inventory includes more state management data than ever before, and millions of acres of
some of the best quail habitat in the world were added from the nation’s leading quail institutes;
o Developed and signed memoranda of agreement with more organizations and agencies, to stimulate
cooperation on quail and grassland projects;
o Participated for the first time ever in the National Wild Turkey Federation Technical Committee
meeting and national convention.

•

The NBCI received a major donation from a quail organization, the Park Cities Quail chapter of the Texas
Quail Coalition, to support our federal-level agriculture policy conservation program.

•

The first major endowed donation was made by Joe R. Crafton, Jr. to the new Bobwhite Foundation: an
initial $100,000 gift, with a public challenge to match all other endowed gifts up to $1 million total from Mr.
Crafton.

•

Major forest management initiatives are building steam with NBCI leadership, to restore quail habitats in
pine and oak woodlands.

•

NBCI is building a national conservation coalition promoting greater emphasis on native vegetation for
USDA conservation programs, to benefit grassland wildlife and pollinators.

•

The 2013 NBTC Annual Meeting, hosted by the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries in
Roanoke and attended by more than 100 biologists, featured participation by the agency’s Executive Director
and some of its Board members.

•

The inaugural meeting of the NBTC Mined Lands Subcommittee marks the official entry of the NBCI into
the reclamation arena, working with stakeholders to strategically foster improved grassland bird habitat
conditions on larger acreages of mined lands.

•

The NBCI published the Seventh National Quail Symposium proceedings in February, and posted all
previous proceedings on the NBCI website, www.bringbackbobwhites.org.

•

The NBCI’s Bobwhite Almanac, State of the Bobwhite report continues to grow and improve, providing an
annual assessment of the condition and progress of the U.S. bobwhite conservation movement. Highlights
include 25 state conservation reports, an annual inventory summarizing total bobwhite management
activity, and numerous features showcasing major projects benefitting quail.

•

The NBCI Model Focal Area Program project will be completed by the end of 2013, and endorsed by the
NBCI Management Board by March 2014, ready for implementation by all NBCI states and partners.


Two major new NBCI developments highlight our work to address the big question of this second decade.
First, a new process of stepping down the NBCI 2.0 from a national vision of priority geographies to individual focal
areas—the NBCI Focal Tiers—will be unveiled at the NBCI Management Board in September. Quail restoration efforts
of various sizes that fit within nested priority tiers—small focal areas within bigger focal landscapes, within large focal
regions—will be eligible for branding as NBCI-sanctioned projects and could receive priority consideration for support.
This concept adds real value to on-the-ground bobwhite conservation efforts that are coordinated with the NBCI.
Second, the NBCI Model Focal Area Program (NMFAP) expounds on the smallest tier, focal areas, creating one of the
largest and most ambitious bobwhite conservation endeavors in history. The NMFAP’s purpose is to demonstrate and
learn effective habitat-based strategies for restoring sustainable bobwhite populations at a scale bigger than average farms
but small enough to be manageable in the near term.
Hundreds of NBTC biologists worked 18 months on a consensus framework of standards and guidance for 25 states to
effectively implement bobwhite and grassland bird focal areas. The NMFAP includes standards for strategic design,
habitat assessment and bird monitoring, raising the bar for effective NBCI implementation. Six states pilot tested parts
of the NMFAP in spring 2013, while more than half of the states are willing to begin implementation soon. See “Show Me
the Quail!” in this report for more information on this milestone NBCI program.
The seriousness with which the NBCI states and partners embrace the NBCI Focal Tiers and the NBCI Model Focal Area
Program will be indicative of whether the bobwhite community as a whole will “muster the resolve, demonstrate the
leadership, combine our resources, and build the effective teamwork—up, down and across the board—that is essential
for our ultimate success” in restoring widespread, huntable populations of wild quail.
The NBCI offers hope that we can.

Don McKenzie
Director, NBCI

K. Marc Puckett
Chair, NBTC Steering Committee

WA
MT

ME

ND
VT

MN

OR
ID

NH

WI

SD

NY

WY

RI

MI
IA

PA

NE

NV

UT

IL
CO

CA

IN

MO

OK

NM

VA

KY

MD

NC

AR

SC
MS

TX

NJ

CT

DE

TN

AZ

NBCI States

OH
WV

KS

MA

AL

GA

LA

FL


Quail Tracks
Joe Crafton Aids Launch
Of Bobwhite Foundation
With First Contribution

A $100,000 endowment and a promise to
match up to $1 million in endowed donations from
any other source within two years was the highlight of
the new Bobwhite Foundation in 2013.

Bobwhite
enthusiast Joe Crafton,
CEO and president
of Dallas-based
CROSSMARK, a leading
sales and marketing
services company in the
consumer goods industry,
and founder and chair of
Park Cities Quail in Dallas,
made the commitment
in memory of his father,
with whom he had hunted
bobwhites on their
ancestral farm in west Tennessee.

“Bobwhite restoration is unlike any species
restoration that’s been attempted,” said NBCI
Director Don McKenzie. “Deer, turkey and elk were
relatively simple and straightforward. Habitat existed
and we moved animals there. Much like waterfowl
restoration, bobwhite restoration is a habitat issue.

“Bobwhites didn’t disappear overnight
and they won’t recover that way either … which
means it’s a multi-year challenge requiring a longterm commitment. This is the first critical step in
assuring that the bobwhite restoration effort has
reliable funding to continue long-term. Joe’s passion
for bobwhites and his willingness to launch the
foundation’s efforts in memory of his father are
immensely important, and we are extremely thankful
for his leadership in this arena,” McKenzie said.

The Bobwhite Foundation is a 501(c)3
non-profit organization established to support the
goals and objectives of NBCI, primarily by recreating
habitat by “reconnecting” forest management with
quail, cattle production with quail, pursing quail
habitat possibilities on reclaimed mine lands and
communicating to the public the urgent nature of the
decline of habitat for quail and other wildlife species
around the nation.

To watch Crafton’s recorded announcement,
go to http://bit.ly/176C8wH.


Brief, But Important
NBCI Online Store
Open for Business

In addition to a few items of branded merchandise,

NBCI is building a modest collection of the best bobwhite and
associated habitat titles available.

Among the titles are: Longleaf, Far as the Eye Can
See; Looking for Longleaf; Beef, Brush and Bobwhites; Forgotten
Grasslands of the South; and On Bobwhites. Check out the
NBCI store at: http://bringbackbobwhites.org/donate-2/onlinestore.

University of Tennessee Center
Presses Native Grass Research

During the past year, the Center for Native Grasslands
Management (CNGM) at UT maintained an active research
program addressing basic information that Extension needs
regarding use of native grasses in forage systems. Research also
addressed the opportunity presented by the biomass industry.
While large-scale commercialization has not materialized
yet, maintaining engagement and influencing management
approaches before they become entrenched is important given
the prospective scale (35-55 million acres, centered on the
Mid-South) of the impact.

Research also focuses on oak/shortleaf woodland/
savannah restoration. These natural grassland communities
were likely the dominant grasslands in the region and still hold
much promise for wildlife conservation through development
of high quality habitat that has been minimally impacted under
modern agricultural production systems.

Finally, CNGM is pursuing a number of wildlife
studies including those evaluating patch-burn, continuous
and rotational grazing, large-scale switchgrass production,
northern bobwhite ecology on reclaimed surface mines,
and breeding bird use/occupancy in restored woodlands/
savannahs.

Outreach remains a key aspect of the work at CNGM
with a focus on Extension leaders/agents, other natural
resource professionals, and producers. The CNGM maintains
active participation in field days, cattlemen’s meetings, inservice trainings, technical publications, and, especially in 2012
as a result of the drought, outreach through the popular and
trade media.
For more information, go to http://nativegrasses.utk.edu.

NJ Forms Habitat Team

New Jersey has put together a

New Jersey Habitat Improvement Team
following a “Native Species Habitat Partner
Survey” designed to determine the level
of interest in grassland habitat restoration
efforts in Cumberland, Gloucester and
Salem counties. The survey was circulated
among 47 federal & state agencies, nongovernmental organizations and utility
companies.

Sixteen positive responses were
received from the Atlantic Coastal Joint
Venture, NJ Conservation Foundation,
NJ Natural Lands Trust, NJ Outdoor
Alliance, NJ State Federation of Sportsmen’s
Clubs, NJ State Agriculture Development
Committee, NJ Division of Fish & Wildlife,
NJ State Forest Service, Central Jersey
Chapter of Pheasant Forever, NJ Ruffed
Grouse Society, Quail Forever, South Jersey
Quail Project, USDA Natural Resource
Conservation Service, USDI Fish and
Wildlife Service, University of Delaware and
the Xerces Society.

The NJHIT mission is to “conserve,
enhance and augment New Jersey’s native
habitats to maximize their long-term
ecological, recreational and economic
value” and the goals are “to maintain New
Jersey’s rich variety of plant and animal
communities at stable, healthy levels and
to protect the soil and water on which they
depend; to educate all New Jerseyans on the
value and needs of our renewable, natural
resources; and, to maximize the recreational
and commercial use of New Jersey’s flora
and fauna for both present and future
generations.”

Thanks
to Our
Sponsors!

Park Cities Quail Invests
In NBCI’s D.C. Efforts

The Dallas-based, non-profit Park Cities Quail (PCQ) organization has awarded the National Bobwhite Conservation

Initiative (NBCI) $75,000 to support its efforts to educate federal agriculture policymakers in the nation’s capital regarding farm
policy impacts on bobwhite quail and other wildlife species.

“The PCQ assistance is critical,” said NBCI Director Don McKenzie. “The way federal agriculture policy is made and
implemented using our tax dollars may be the single most powerful influence on wildlife and wildlife habitat on private lands
across America,” McKenzie said. “That policy can be a negative influence or it can be a positive influence. To date, unfortunately,
it’s been more of the former for bobwhite quail and a long list of songbirds, pollinators and other wildlife species.

“Park Cities Quail’s support will help us continue our efforts in Washington on behalf of bobwhites, while we seek the
additional support required to remain engaged long-term with USDA in, for instance, incorporating common sense changes such
as drought-tolerant, wildlife-friendly native grasses in their policies. That could be the single biggest positive step for quail and
other wildlife species in decades.”


South Carolina
Launching Broad Push for
Wild Bobwhites, Other
Grassland Birds

A

state steeped in the culture and tradition
of wild bobwhite hunting as much as
any in the country—South Carolina—
is implementing a new National Bobwhite
Conservation Initiative (NBCI)-based plan aimed
at population recovery in the Palmetto State.
The plan will focus on landscape-scale strategies
to maximize results and resources rather than
individual scattered tracts.

Although the plan was presented to the DNR
board in a public meeting earlier this year, it won’t launch
in a big way to the public until this fall as biologists put
pieces in place. They have already established four “NBCI
focal regions” utilizing a national assessment of habitat
potential, and are working to identify at least one “focal
area” of a 1,500-acre minimum size within each of those
four regions for intensive management, using public
lands as anchors.

The four regions are:
NBCI Pee Dee Focal Region—Nine counties
(Chesterfield, Marlboro, Dillon, Darlington,
Florence, Marion, Horry, Williamsburg and
Georgetown) in eastern South Carolina with 2.1
million acres ranked as high or medium potential
for restoration and with 37% percent upland
pine and 28% cropland as the major cover types.
Significant public lands include the Sand Hills State
Forest, Carolina Sandhills National Wildlife Refuge,
McBee Wildlife Management Area, Marsh Wildlife
Management Area, Woodbury Wildlife Management
Area and Lewis Ocean Bay Heritage Preserve/
Wildlife Management Area. Full implementation of
habitat opportunities would result in nearly 19,000
additional coveys, or 31% of the statewide goal.
NBCI Central Focal Region—Seven counties in
the coastal plain (Lee, Sumter, Clarendon, Calhoun,
Orangeburg, Dorchester and Berkeley) with 1.5
million acres with high or medium potential,
with 37% upland pine and 27% cropland as the
predominant vegetation. Significant public lands
include Bonneau Ferry Wildlife Management


Area, Canal Wildlife Management Area and
Manchester State Forest, including Oak Lea Wildlife
Management Area, and Santee Cooper Wildlife
Management Area, and portions of Francis Marion
National Forest. Full implementation of habitat
opportunities would add nearly 13,000 coveys or
about 21% of the statewide goal.
NBCI South Focal Region—Six counties in the
coastal plain (Barnwell, Bamberg, Allendale,
Hampton, Colleton and Jasper) with 49% upland
pine and 14% cropland as the predominant
vegetation types. There are existing private quail
conservation areas along with the public Webb
Center Wildlife Management Area, Palachucola
Wildlife Management Area, Hamilton Ridge
Wildlife Management Area and Donnelley Wildlife
Management Area. Full habitat implementation
would create nearly 11,000 new coveys or about 17%
of the state’s goal.
NBCI Piedmont Focal Region—Eight counties
(Union, Laurens, Newberry, Saluda, Greenwood,
Abbeville, McCormick and Edgefield) with 2.2
million acres ranked as having high or medium
potential with 43% upland pine and 22% upland
hardwood as predominant vegetation. Public lands
include Belfast Wildlife Management Area and
portions of the Sumter National Forest. Full habitat
management implementation would add over 10,000
coveys or about 16% of the statewide goal.

“We’ve formally established these NBCI focal
regions based on the analysis of bobwhite habitat
potential,” said Billy Dukes, former small game project
leader (and quail coordinator), now assistant chief of
wildlife. “We’ll be working on identifying at least one
focal area within each region, including all the associated
habitat and population monitoring protocols established

by the national initiative to directly link population
growth to habitat improvements.

“We’ll use public lands as anchors for the focal
areas within these regions and build out from them
with landowner cooperatives. That process has already
started and is made easier by the fact that nearly all the
individuals that will be involved were part of the original
NBCI effort to review and rank the habitat potential of
lands. We have strong relationships with them.”

In South Carolina that habitat creation will
pursue two primary targets. Forested land comprises
65% of the acres categorized as having high or
medium potential for bobwhite restoration, followed
by agricultural lands at 19%. That means the primary
opportunities for recovering South Carolina’s populations
will be in forest/woodland savannah creation and
management, and farm field management utilizing field
borders and conversion of exotic grass pastures to native
warm season grasses.

“The habitat creation and management aspect is
doable through partnerships, and the partnerships will
be essential,” asserts Dukes, who is already reaching out

to potential partners, including the National Wild Turkey
Federation (NWTF) whose headquarters is in the state.
NWTF executed an agreement with NBCI last year to
target resources to help selected states with quail focal
areas where it would also benefit turkeys.

“The challenge will be in doing the proper
monitoring of habitat and bird response. That will
require manpower and will,” Dukes said.

In addition to the focal regions and focal areas,
establishing a State Quail Council and a Bobwhite Quail
Technical Committee to advise the council, placing
biologists in the offices of the federal Natural Resources
Conservation Service and rebuilding the Department of
Natural Resources’ own internal capacity are also all on
the “to do” list. The state, for instance, is expected to hire
a full-time quail biologist as part of that capacity.

Of course, South Carolina isn’t alone in
plummeting numbers of bobwhites … or of other species
of grassland and early successional/shrub breeding birds,
for that matter. It’s the same across the range.

In South Carolina, estimates put the decline in
the state at 6.1% annually since 1966 and those losses are
attributed directly to the decline in quantity and quality
of early successional habitat across the state. Biologists
peg current quail density in all upland habitat types in
the state at just over 306,000 birds, or 25,512 coveys … or
one covey per 499 acres.

Current quail density in those areas of the state
ranked by NBCI as having “high” or “medium” potential
for bobwhite habitat management (9.15 million acres) is
estimated at about 279,000 birds or 23,234 coveys … or
one covey per 394 acres. NBCI predicts that if prescribed
management was applied to all the “high” and “medium”
areas over 61,000 coveys would be added, with a resulting
density of one covey per 108 acres.

The habitat decline isn’t affecting only quail. In
fact, thirteen of the 17 species in South Carolina that
depend on the same habitat as bobwhites
are showing declining trends. And there
are similar trends across the bobwhite
range. If the South Carolina Department
of Natural Resources can rebuild
habitat for bobwhites—a resident game
bird for which they have specific legal
responsibility—the other bird species will
simultaneously reap the benefits.
You can read the new South Carolina quail
initiative, Northern Bobwhite Habitat
Restoration in South Carolina: Challenges
and Opportunities in the 21st Century, in
its entirety on the NBCI website at http://
bit.ly/16LfMlu.


Forest Management

One of the Best Bets For Bobwhite’s Future

T

he loss of suitable habitat from changing
land use practices—most notably more
intensive agriculture, urbanization and a
dramatic decline in the use of fire—across the entire
historic range of bobwhite quail has had a crushing
impact on a once iconic species … as well as
numerous songbirds, pollinators and other species.

While we typically think of the classic bobwhite
habitat in an agricultural context (and indeed this will
remain an opportunity given federal policy changes), our
best habitat work on behalf of bobwhites will actually
occur in the forested landscape from New Jersey to
Texas and Oklahoma to Florida. Much of this is already
occurring, often with very positive results for quail.

Bobwhites thrive in forested stands that have
been thinned to allow sunlight to reach the forest floor
and where these same stands have received a frequent
application of prescribed fire. It matters little whether
the forest is an open post oak savannah, or one of the
various species of southern yellow pine such as loblolly,
longleaf, shortleaf and others.

The combination of sunlight and fire is what
produces the under story habitat crucial to bobwhites,
that magical mix of grasses, forbs (weeds and
wildflowers), woody shrubs and sufficient bare ground
for bobwhites to put one foot in front of the other. This is
habitat that is easily incorporated into the southern pine
landscapes where fire can be applied through the life of a
forest stand without damage to timber for later harvest.

Although excellent bobwhite habitat can be
created under all species of southern yellow pine, loblolly
and slash are typically planted with a stronger focus on
timber production. On the other hand, longleaf and
shortleaf produce exceptionally good timber as well, and
are more commonly planted/managed for a greater range
of benefits, including wildlife, on both public and private
lands. Longleaf and shortleaf stands with sufficient
sunlight to the ground and application of prescribed
fire can provide unsurpassed bobwhite habitat, making
stands of those species perfect targets for bobwhite
restoration efforts.

America’s Longleaf Restoration Initiative (http://
www.americaslongleaf.org) and the Shortleaf Pine
Initiative (http://www.shortleafpine.net) are two major
forest and wildlife habitat efforts that are active across
much of the 25 state NBCI range. These initiatives have


By Mike Black
NBCI Forestry Coordinator

many stakeholders and a wide range of objectives, but all
include the promotion of pine establishment, thinning
and prescribed fire.

Both initiatives are focused primarily on public
land opportunities first, followed by private lands. This
policy fits well with the NBCI objectives for habitat
development and improvement on the forested landscape
of public lands since they have more capacity to establish,
manage, thin and burn, especially on a large, landscape
scale. Additionally, they demonstrate to other public and
private landowners successful management methods
while providing public access for hunting.

Longleaf pine originally covered over 90 million
acres in a vast seven-state swath from Virginia to Texas.
Shortleaf pine occurred across 22 of the 25 NBCI states,
but has been reduced by over 50%—especially in the

A young longleaf pine

Longleaf historic range map, left. Shortleaf historic range map, right.
eastern range. Due to frequent burning by Native
lands under ecosystem restoration and management
Americans and European settlers to mimic the positive
policies, and also provide an excellent opportunity to
landscape and wildlife impacts of natural fire, longleaf
private landowners to produce both high quality timber
and shortleaf were common species across the landscape
and wildlife habitat under proper management.
in nearly pure to mixed stands. Both species thrived

Also, the excellent sawtimber value of longleaf
with frequent fire and these forests were common in
and shortleaf fits the changing objectives on nonthe region, supporting both high quality forest products
industrial private forestlands toward longer sawtimber
as well as exceptional wildlife habitat. Longleaf and
rotations rather than shorter pulpwood rotations.
shortleaf were often found in open savannah and

Successful tactics for managing all southern
woodland forests and provided outstanding habitat for
yellow pine species for bobwhite quail are to maintain
Bobwhite quail and other flora and fauna that required
open stands, in balance with other forest management
grassland and early
successional habitats.
“In ‘pine barrens’ most of the day. Low, level, sandy

Longleaf pine,
tracts; the pines wide apart; the sunny spaces between
shortleaf pine and bobwhite
quail have all seen
full of beautiful abounding grasses, Liatris, long, wandsignificant losses. Bobwhite
like Solidago, saw palmettos, etc., covering the ground
quail alone have seen an
80% decline in the last 40
in garden style. Here I sauntered in delightful freedom,
years on a range wide basis.
meeting none of the cat-clawed vines, or shrubs, of the
According to the National
Bobwhite Conservation
alluvial bottoms.”
Initiative Plan (www.
—John Muir, 1867
bringbackbobwhites.org),
the greatest opportunity
to restore wild bobwhite quail is in the forested portion
objectives, through early and frequent thinning, and the
of their historic range. Unlike agricultural lands, which
liberal use of prescribed fire. Basal areas of 20 at the low
will see ever increasing demands for utilization, forested
end to 70 at the high end can be considered. Fire return
lands have the unique opportunity to be managed for
intervals should vary, but average a two-year schedule—
longer-term benefits such as timber production and
three at the higher end. Longer fire return intervals can
wildlife habitat. The historic stands of longleaf and
be used on areas of less precipitation and slower forest
shortleaf pine provided exceptional quail habitat when
succession.
thinned and burned, so the success and the restoration of

The management of longleaf and shortleaf
longleaf, shortleaf and bobwhites will go hand-in-hand.
pine stands in a savannah to woodland gradient,

The combined range of longleaf pine and
including the frequent use of prescribed fire, presents an
shortleaf pine covers nearly 95% of the forested portion
unprecedented opportunity to assist in the recovery of
of the historical range for bobwhite quail. Both pine
bobwhite quail, provide habitat for other early and late
species have created new interest on federal and state
successional species, produce high quality wood products


and timber values, and meet an
array of other objectives on private
and public lands.
A professional forester, Mike Black’s
full-time job is forestry coordinator
for the National Bobwhite
Conservation Initiative. He also
serves as senior conservationist with
the Shortleaf Pine Initiative and
the incoming chair of the Longleaf
Partnership Council.
Two excellent books are available
on longleaf pine and the longleaf
ecosystem, “Looking for Longleaf,
The Fall and Rise of an American
Forest,” by Lawrence Earley, and
the fantastic “Longleaf, As Far as
the Eye Can See,” by writers Bill
Finch, Rhett Johnson, and John C.
Hall with Beth Maynor Young’s
breathtaking photography. Both are
available for purchase on NBCI’s
online store at http://bringbackbobwhites.org/donate-2/
online-store.

Arkansas shortleaf pine

“The bobwhite might probably be called the ‘fire bird,’ so closely is it
linked ecologically with fire in the coastal pinelands.”
—Herbert Stoddard

While Stoddard made the
connection of fire with
quail specifically in the
coastal areas, fire is and
always has been a critical
factor in “re-setting
the biological clock” in
plant succession across
America. Whether from
natural causes initially or
from humans mimicking
nature through the
centuries for the wildlife
benefits, fire is critical in
creating and maintaining
habitat required for a
wide diversity of wildlife,
from bobwhites to bison.


There are many “active, purposeful forest management” projects on the
ground across the range that are showing promise for bobwhites. Not
all of them have “bobwhite” in the title. Here are three examples.
Bobwhites Thriving on USFS’s

Ouachita

National Forest in Arkansas/Oklahoma

O

ne of the best examples of active,
purposeful forest management in the
bobwhite range may be in the 1.8 million
acre Ouachita National Forest in Arkansas and
Oklahoma. The original 155,000-acre Shortleaf
Pine/Bluestem Grass Ecosystem Restoration project
here “got started almost by default,” but it has
local quail hunters—and nature enthusiasts of
all stripes—delighted. And the effort has grown,
essentially, to a 300,000-acre commitment to
restoration of this ecosystem.

Although today much of the east-west ranging
mountain chain is crowded, closed canopy forest, it
wasn’t always. Researchers found that the earliest visitors
to the region described a landscape dominated by open
shortleaf pine, pine-hardwood and mixed-oak forests

with a rich collection of fire-dependent native grasses,
wildflowers and “weeds” underneath. Elk, bison and
white-tailed deer were abundant. Over the years, that
forest-grassland ecosystem disappeared, thanks initially
to the wholesale harvesting of the virgin timber, followed
by strict fire control and overall lack of management
directed at ecosystem health and preservation.

Then, along came “RCW” … the red-cockaded
woodpecker. Its listing as an endangered species in 1970
required federal agencies to pay attention and begin
managing for its survival. The Ouachita’s efforts to do so,
beginning first with management of individual RCW’s
cavity trees on the forest, is the “almost by default” part
of the story.

“A lot of foresters here had a lot of foresight,”
said Warren Montague, a Forest Service biologist on the
Ouachita. Because of the woodpecker’s specific habitat


requirements (open pine forests with frequent fire that
provides a generous supply of insects and seeds), “there
was a lot of prescribed burning and timber management
going on in the ‘70s.”

Simple management of existing individual
cavity trees used
by the RCW wasn’t
working, so what
happened, Montague
said, is that forest
management
techniques
came under the
microscope. Sitespecific studies examining all parts of the puzzle were
launched. They enlarged their RCW management efforts
to include “aggregates” of cavity trees, then added buffer
zones to that.

Today, through a series of amendments to
their specific forest plan about one-third of the forest
dominated by pine forest types—or about 17 percent
of the entire national forest—is essentially committed
to shortleaf/bluestem ecosystem restoration. “The
approach,” said Montague, “is much more on an overall
landscape scale, an evolutionary thing as a result of RCW
management.”

Management more or less attempts to
mimic historical disturbance conditions utilizing
both commercial and non-commercial thinning and
prescribed burns on a three-year rotation, mostly during
the dormant season but increasingly during the growing
season. Average size of the burn units is 600 acres, but
can be as large as 8,000 acres. There’s also a modified
approach to wildfire control. If a fire is beneficial to
the resource and doesn’t threaten lives or property, it is
allowed to run its course.

“We haven’t quite achieved a three-year fire
rotation given budget, personnel and weather variables,”

said Montague, “but we’re doing pretty well. The
frequency and intensity of the burns are the keys
to knocking back the woody component in the
mid-story and understory. We’ll do an occasional
growing season burn, and even increase frequency of
burns if we’re working in an area that affords us the
opportunity.”

While the woodpecker is the target species in
much of this work, bobwhite quail populations are
also used as an indication of success. And they “have
had pretty darn good feedback from hunters” on that
measurement.

“All I can tell you is that where we have one
or two-year-old burns you find good numbers of
quail,” said Montague. “And there are a number of
local folks who spend a lot of time hunting here. This
is the Ouachita Highlands Region, so its mountain
hunting and it’s tough, but the quail populations are high
and maybe some time the season will be lengthened.”
Montague said extending the season might also attract
more people into the area to see “what this kind of
management can
do”… and then
they could help
spread the word.
RCWs and
bobwhites aren’t
the only birds to
benefit. Increases
have also been
documented in nine species of ground/shrub-foraging
species, including the yellow-breasted chat, brown-

“A lot of foresters here had a lot of foresight
... there was a lot of prescribed burning and
timber management going on in the ‘70s.”


of opposition from various special interest groups.
The Ouachita’s ecosystem restoration proposal was no
exception. In this case, however, they had useful tool
now known as the Buffalo Road Pine/Bluestem Tour.
Developed in the earlier days of RCW management
efforts, this self-guided tour, supported with a brochure
and explanatory signs, was used by the Forest Service for
guided tours for the different interest groups. Individuals
could see all the steps in the management process and see
the consequences for themselves.

The result was that when the Ouachita prepared
an Environmental Impact Statement on their proposal
for shortleaf/bluestem ecosystem restoration on a
landscape scale, there were only seven public comments
registered. All seven were supportive. (The tour continues
to be very popular among visitors. For a “virtual” Buffalo
Road tour please visit http://1.usa.gov/14l37SP.)

The forest’s partners in the effort reflects the
broad spectrum of support and include the Arkansas
Game & Fish Commission, the Oklahoma Department
of Wildlife Conservation, Arkansas Natural Heritage
Commission, Oklahoma Biological Survey, Audubon of
Arkansas, The Nature Conservancy, the National Wild
Turkey Federation and the Ouachita Timber Purchasers’
Group.

headed cowbird, Carolina wren, northern cardinal, wild
turkey, indigo bunting, chipping sparrow and shrub
nesting species American goldfinch and prairie warbler.
A Birder’s Guide to Arkansas featured the project area
as a unique opportunity to view RCWs, brown-headed
nuthatches and Bachman’s sparrows. Restoration
efforts increased preferred deer forage six fold, and
improvements in soil composition and vegetative
diversity have also been recorded.

Active, purposeful forest management,
especially on national forests at any scale, has a history

Ouachita Timber Purchasers

Ouachita National Forest
Collaborative Forest Landscape
Restoration Program (CFLRP)
Shortleaf - Bluestem Community

CFLRP Focus Areas

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Virginia

O

Debuts Forest Management Practices
With Private Landowners

n a smaller scale—and in another
dimension of the world of active,
purposeful forest management—the
Virginia Department of Game & Inland Fisheries
has partnered with the Virginia Division of
Forestry (VDOF) in supporting a set of “best
management practices” for pine to support
development of quail habitat on private, nonindustrial lands in its six bobwhite focal regions.
And all while increasing commercial timber value.

The Forestry Quail Habitat Recovery CostShare Program, which debuted this year, was limited
to landowners in the 15 counties that comprise the six
regions and was open for enrollment only a short period

of time. But it brought pine management activities
beneficial to quail and other wildlife to 300 privately
owned acres.

“With commodity prices as high as they are it’s
more difficult to convince farmers to do a lot for quail,”
said Marc Puckett, the state’s “quail coordinator” and
chair of the National Bobwhite Technical Committee.
“We thought it would be a good way—and a good time—
to see if we could interest any private timberland owners
to do some things to improve quail habitat.

“Specifically,” Puckett explained, “the four BMPs
we are funding include pine thinning in stands that
range from 5 to 25 acres, pre-commercial thinning, midrotation herbicide release of pines and planting of shortleaf pine. The benefits of these practices are significant to

Herbicide application extends all the benefits of pine stand thinning


wildlife habitat diversity and forest health. We offer the
funding to incentivize landowners to manage pine stands
throughout their life cycle.

“Pre-commercial thinning can be particularly
important where pine stands have been allowed to
regenerate naturally and are too thick for forest health,
providing virtually no wildlife habitat. Pine stand
thinning opens up the forest canopy, allows sunlight
to hit the forest floor and stimulates herbaceous plant
growth, which greatly improving wildlife habitat and
can set the stage for prescribed burning if so desired.
Thinning also promotes forest health so it is a win-win.

“We are also incentivizing the planting of
short-leaf pine stands because they are generally slower
to reach canopy closure, and longer lived so more
conducive to multiple thinnings through time, more
likely to require use of prescribed fire in management,
and more easily managed for the creation of pine
savannah habitats that are more conducive to wildlife.
Increasing acres of short-leaf pine in Virginia also
improves diversification in the forest economy and forest
health.

“And by using the proper herbicides in midrotation pine stand management, the benefits of
thinnings can be maintained longer, more sunlight is
allowed to reach the forest floor, herbaceous plants are
favored over competing hardwood saplings and wildlife
habitat can be maintained longer,” Puckett said.

Based on the 300 acres enrolled in a very short
time period—four months—Virginia is extending the
agreement another year and expanding the enrollment
period but the dates aren’t set.

“We’re very pleased that VDOF is stepping up to
assist us with this initiative again, but they’ve been a great
ally on our quail plan, which they signed on Day 1 five
years ago.”

“Our field foresters tell me they have some
projects waiting in the wings for next year,” said Dean
Cumbia, director
of resources
management for
the state forestry
agency. “That’s pretty
encouraging.”

“The benefits of these practices are significant
to wildlife habitat diversity and forest health.”


Bobwhites Responding to Longleaf Restoration

I

On


f the red-cockaded woodpecker deserves any
credit for the expanding quail populations on
the Ouachita National Forest in Arkansas,
the southern pine beetle might want to take a bow
for what’s happening on the Barbour Wildlife
Management Area in Barbour and Bullock counties
in southeast Alabama.

In that portion of the WMA, which is being
managed for longleaf pine restoration, there are a
“tremendous number of deer,” quail hunters are happy
because of covey increases (nine separate coveys were
flushed during one 400-500 acre prescribed burn),
rabbits are doing what rabbits do best, and a whole suite
of bird species, including Bachman sparrows, American
kestrels, prairie warblers and field sparrows, are all on the
increase. A visitor can stand in one place and hear both

a bobwhite and a Bachman sparrow. That is, in fact, what
NBCI Director Don McKenzie recently experienced.

The first 8,000 acres of this 28,000-acre WMA
were purchased in 1949 for “quail research,” according
to Drew Nix, a forester with the Alabama Department of
Conservation and Natural Resources’ Division of Wildlife
and Freshwater Fisheries (WFF). A year later, the state
launched a seedling nursery for bicolor lespedeza, that
era’s “silver bullet” for quail being heavily promoted at
the time by the then-Soil Conservation Service, now the
Natural Resources Conservation Service. In 1952, the
wildlife division started stocking deer and turkey and
opened the area to deer hunting in the early ‘60s. There
was little active timber management, even into the ‘90s
… but there were tons of bicolor seed spread far and
wide.

Compartments 1, 2, 3, 5, and 6 in the longleaf restoration area in the northern part of
Barbour WMA have
been harvested.
Compartments 1,
2, 3, and 5 have
been reforested, and
compartment 6 will be
planted this planting
season. Compartment
4 is being harvested
and will receive a
bicolor spray next
spring, hardwood
control treatment in
Summer ‘14, planted
Fall ‘14 & Winter
‘15. Compartment 7
will marked, cruised,
sold and harvested
in ‘13 & ‘14 with
the anticipation of
reforestation occurring
in 2016.

The NWTF partnered
to assist with seedlings,
site prep and planting
of areas on Barbour
WMA and for
enhancement and
management of existing
longleaf stands.

Then came the southern pine beetle.

The beetle’s devastation resulted in thousands
of acres of pine trees being cut and salvaged. And quail
and turkey responded. But it quickly became apparent
it wouldn’t last. There “was no forest regeneration to
speak of,” said Nix, because the bicolor lespedeza quickly
invaded the cutover areas, shutting down even the
growth of native grasses and legumes.

“There was a tremendous amount of bicolor,”
Nix said, while sweetgum and water oaks reclaimed the
uplands. (While bicolor can be a good late-season food
source, it provides little else for quail, including nesting
habitat. Native species provide all habitat components,
but are out-competed by bicolor, which grows thick, tall
and fast.)

In 1996, they began experimenting with
herbicides for bicolor control and planting longleaf pines.
It took seven to eight years to discover what herbicides in
what combinations would work. In 2006, they launched
what they “loosely call” their longleaf initiative, a plan to
reclaim 4,000 acres in the northern section of the WMA
as a longleaf savannah.

The first of seven compartments was cut in 2007.
The sixth compartment was cut this year and the seventh
will be cut next summer. Management tactics depend on
vegetative response.

“We get a flush of growth,” said Nix, “nearly
all bicolor. In June, we do an aerial site spray targeting
bicolor. In August or September we’ll run a hot fire
through and the following spring we’ll use a broadleaf
herbicide for hardwood brush control tank mixed with
another herbicide for seedling bicolor control. We’ve had

good success with native legumes and grasses coming
back. We follow that up with tree planting, then with
a burning cycle. The cycle varies but usually a cool
season burn after the first season or two, and sometimes
herbaceous, weed control to allow the longleaf to get out
of the ‘grass’ stage. From then on it depends on how the
site responds with woody understory.”

Incidentally, this isn’t the only forest
management with observed bobwhite response occurring
in the state, according to Nix. Many other areas outside
of the Northside of Barbour WMA have been restored
to longleaf. Any site that is harvested is assessed for the
potential to be restored to longleaf.

Similar forest management work with either
longleaf or shortleaf is occurring on other wildlife
management areas, including 2,500 acres of longleaf in
southwest Alabama and some “large-scale” shortleaf/
bluestem restoration in northwest Alabama on WFF and
Forever Wild land Trust property on Freedom Hills and
Lauderdale WMA’s, WFF property on the Cumberland
Plateau at James D. Martin-Skyline WMA, and on the
Bankhead National Forest.

“Even the state parks are doing what they can
and the State Lands Division is doing a tremendous
amount on Forever Wild property,” said Nix. “What
hampers us (the department) is that while there are
750,000 acres in wildlife management areas, WFF only
owns 90,000. Forever Wild Land Trust owns 200,000
and the rest is leased from the feds, private corporate
landowners, the forestry commission and others.

“We’re trying to march on…”


Can Save Bobwhites … or Seal Their Fate

A

s I write this in August 2013, the future
of the 2013 Farm Bill is in question. The
Farm Bill is the main mechanism by which
federal agricultural conservation programs are
authorized. While the Farm Bill is far from perfect,
failure to pass some version of it this year would be
a setback not only to wildlife conservation but also
to conservation of natural resources in general.

David Peters

Federal Agriculture Policy

by Kyle Brazil, NBCI Agriculture Policy Coordinator

fescue. The Brazil family farm was no exception. I doubt
my grandpa could have anticipated the detrimental effect
that planting Bermudagrass would have on his favorite
bird. If he had, perhaps he would have decided against it.

Then again, the economics of forage production
were different back then. Fertilizer cost next to nothing
and the Soil Conservation Service (now the U.S.
Department of Agriculture (USDA) Natural Resources
Conservation Service) was pushing the new, “improved”

Normally you only get one chance to shoot a
grass. The fact that USDA would also pay most of the
bobwhite. This particular bird was breaking the rules.
planting cost probably sealed the deal. This ability to
My cousin and I had recently received one of the most
affect major business decisions of farmers and ranchers
coveted of all boyhood possessions—a pellet gun.
makes federal agriculture policy a powerful tool. Like
Despite the summer heat, we
most landowners, my
were out testing our hunting
grandpa was pragmatic:
“Whether bobwhite quail populations
and marksmanship skills. The
a farm, first and foremost,
bobwhite hen we chanced upon
stand or fall is heavily influenced by
had to “make you a
gave us plenty of opportunity
living.”
federal agricultural policy.”
to adjust our unskilled aim.
In the past, the
Eventually, we got it.
bobwhite community

We took the hen to
has taken a laissez-faire approach to federal agriculture
Grandpa, an avid quail hunter, for his approval. To our
policy. Perhaps this is because for the better part of a
surprise, instead of praise we received admonishment.
century small-scale agriculture, combined with lessWhat commenced was my first lesson in wildlife
efficient technology, seemed to produce abundant quail
management. Grandpa sternly yet lovingly explained that
populations regardless of intent. Those days are gone.
the hen didn’t flee because she was protecting her chicks,

Whether bobwhite quail populations stand
which likely had been “holed-up” nearby. By killing
or fall is heavily influenced by federal agricultural
the hen in the summer, we had inadvertently killed the
policy. For years, those policies have prompted farmers
equivalent of an entire fall covey. Quail were too scarce
and ranchers to replace native grasses with a host of
for a mistake like that.
introduced, sod-forming species—and to inadvertently

The road to scarcity for northern bobwhites has
decimate bobwhite populations and other grassland bird
been paved in part with the promotion and subsidization
populations as a result. The good news is that it now
of introduced grasses such as Bermudagrass and tall


makes ecological AND business sense to restore native
grasses. The problem is that federal agriculture policy
has not caught up to that reality. It is up to the quail and
grassland bird community and other natural resources
conservationists to make sure it does.

Federal agriculture policy dictates how public
funding is applied to private agricultural lands. Multiple
agencies, such as the U.S. Department of the Interior,
have private lands conservation programs, but USDA
impacts by far the most acres and has the most funding
for private agricultural lands conservation. There are
many legitimate reasons for applying public funds to
private lands. In addition to food and fiber, necessities
for everyday life such as clean air and drinking water
are heavily influenced by actions taken on private land.
Wildlife, a publicly owned resource, is dependent on the
availability of habitat on private lands across much of the
nation. Conserving these resources is not free, and can be
expensive.

The Farm Bill—revised and reauthorized by
Congress about every five years—largely determines
the powers and programs that USDA can use to assist
private landowners. Beyond legislative authority, the
regulations and procedural guidelines adopted by the
agencies responsible for implementing the authorities
become vitally important.
In reality, the Farm Bill
is to federal agriculture
policy as the pirates’
code is to behavior on
outlaw ships—it’s really
more what you’d call
“guidelines.” How these
guidelines are interpreted
by the agencies is what
becomes policy that
affects landowners’
decisions on the ground.

The continued
existence of meaningful
populations of bobwhites,
as well as an entire suite of grassland birds, depends
in large part on our ability to influence policy. Federal
policy can be a tool to restore bobwhite habitats and
populations, or it can continue to contribute to the
problem. History proves this point. Introduced grasses
dominate the current agricultural landscape across the
bobwhite’s range, to the detriment of most grassland
birds, largely because of federal agriculture policy.

For decades, USDA promoted and subsidized
the conversion of millions of acres of diverse native
grass and shrublands to monocultures of Bermudagrass,
Bahiagrass, tall fescue, and other “improved” grasses
that provide poor quail habitat. Oceans of quail habitat

slowly became islands of habitat. While the purpose of
this widespread conversion was to provide high-quality
forage that could be grazed more heavily than native
grasses, a side effect was loss of vegetative diversity and
wildlife populations.

Successfully reversing the bobwhite decline
will require the restoration of millions of acres of native
habitat on private lands. Only the federal government,
and specifically USDA, has the manpower, influence, and
funding to impact private land use on that scale.

Unfortunately, since quail don’t migrate and
they’re not on the endangered species list, they do not
get the same protection, attention or funding that ducks,
shorebirds, or wolves get from the federal government.
There is no federal impetus to pass laws, form policies, or
fund projects to protect bobwhite habitat or provide for
their life history needs.

The quail community must take this task upon
itself. In doing so, we must be pragmatic—which means
that we must understand that in order for conservation
to work on private lands, it must also work for the
landowner.

The good news is that economics increasingly
are on the quail’s side as well. The profitability of
introduced grass grazing systems depends on cheap
inputs such as fertilizer and
herbicide. The price of these
inputs has skyrocketed,
reducing or eliminating their
profitability. Native warmseason grass systems, which
require neither fertilizer nor
herbicide and are drought
resistant, remain profitable.

Many landowners are
now restoring native grasses
purely as a business decision.
Furthermore, a growing
body of literature shows that
native warm-season grasses,
the primary nesting cover
of bobwhites, also provide soil and water conservation
benefits comparable to introduced grasses.

This begs the question of why—if native
grasses provide economically viable high-quality,
drought tolerant forage, equal or greater soil and water
conservation benefit, AND wildlife habitat—does
USDA not put more emphasis on planting them and
provide equitable subsidies for doing so compared to the
introduced grass alternative?

If my grandfather were given the same choice
today between native and introduced grasses, I believe he
would choose to stick with his native forages so that he
could have both cattle and quail.


Show Me the Quail!

Georgia, Iowa, Kentucky, Missouri, Texas and Virginia
Launch Pilot NBCI Model Focal Areas

Dr. Tom Dailey John Morgan
Ken Duren
NBCI Asst. Director/Science Coordinator
KY Dept. of Fish and Wildlife Resources OH Dept. of Natural Resources

M

any quail
hunters,
landowners
and biologists are
stymied by dwindling
and disappearing
bobwhite populations.
Quail biologists in the
1960s observed declining
habitat conditions,
including intensified
farming, increased
use of exotic pasture
grasses and naturallyoccurring replacement
of grasslands by forests,
and prophesied the
demise of quail that we
now lament.

Although other
factors such as weather
affect short-term quail
abundance, the only viable long-term solution is habitat.
The recently published final report by Mississippi State
University (MSU) on the increase in quail abundance
resulting from CP33 practices (Habitat Buffers for
Upland Birds, http://bringbackbobwhites.org/newsroom/
nbci-news-releases) demonstrates how effective fieldlevel habitat management can be, even in intensive
agricultural settings.

This specific report did not, however, address
sustainability of quail populations. Other work at MSU,
University of Georgia and Oklahoma State University has
identified the need for larger-scale habitat conservation,
thousands of acres, to ensure that bobwhites will thrive
through the worst natural conditions (weather, climate,
predation, disease, etc.).

As described in the 2011 State of the Bobwhite
Report (page 6), state agency bobwhite habitat focal areas
numbered >100, size ranged from 300 to 2.3 million
acres, and 45 of the areas were producing statistically
valid estimates of bobwhite abundance. Reports of
success, however, have been few, and communication
of results, what is working, what is not, has only slowly
emerged.


In spring 2012, the
National Bobwhite
Technical Committee
(NBTC) Steering
Committee asserted that
the viability of range-wide
bobwhite conservation
depends on demonstrating
the validity of the habitatbased strategy, and soon,
within 5-10 years. A
credible demonstration
will require achieving
bobwhite managed
density goals in multiple
areas through habitat
management. The NBTC
Steering Committee, after
receiving input from the
NBCI Management Board,
state agencies and NBTC
members, believes that
focal areas are the best tool for demonstrating bobwhite
recovery successes through habitat delivery.

State agency quail biologists crafted quail
abundance goals as part of the NBCI 2.0 quail plan
(http://bit.ly/17hm2SN) as a measure of recovery, and
the plan called for an adaptive management approach
for identifying what habitat approaches are working,
and what is not working. Adaptive management is often
referred to today as Strategic Habitat Conservation,
a cyclical process of habitat conservation planning,
implementation, and learning.

Over the past 18 months, hundreds of biologists
tied to the NBTC have worked on a draft implementation
plan, the NBCI Model Focal Area Program. There
have been four face-to-face meetings, including two
special state agency quail coordinator sessions at the
annual NBTC meeting, a hundred conference calls,
countless email discussions, and a survey of state quail
coordinators’ views and experiences regarding quail
population monitoring.

The habitat foundation of the NBCI Model
Focal Area Program is that NBCI focal areas should have
concentrated bobwhite habitat and be able to sustain

Eric Niewoehner

a bobwhite population through populations ups and
downs resulting from natural conditions, regardless of
the surrounding landscape.

Research points to focal areas containing at least
1,500 acres of year-round suitable habitat and this habitat
would comprise at least 25% of the focal area. These
numbers translate to a 1,500-acre NBCI focal area if all
the suitable habitat is side-by-side (contiguous, 100%
coverage of habitat). This could be a diverse grassland,
shrubland or woodland.

In highly-altered landscapes where farming
dominates, production fields are not suitable for
bobwhites for part of the annual life cycle, and thus
that portion is not counted towards the 1,500 acres. In
these cases the scenario often will be a 6,000-acre focal
area with 1,500 acres of year-round habitat to meet the
minimum criterion of 25% suitable habitat.

Beyond habitat management and evaluation, the
tenet of NBCI focal areas is that bobwhite population
response, usually abundance, be measured. Because
NBCI focal area habitat will benefit many species, song
birds will also be measured in spring.

The NBTC Steering Committee’s goal is for each
of the 25 NBCI states to participate in this collaborative
effort with at least one NBCI focal area and reference
area. NBCI focal areas must be monitored for habitat
gained and bobwhite response—not only to provide
credible evidence of progress, but also to enable learning
so that effective programs can be replicated across the
landscape.

Rigorous standardized or coordinated
monitoring of focal areas across NBCI states will provide
learning opportunities and supporting evidence for
habitat-based bobwhite conservation, even if a subset of
NBCI focal areas does not reach their managed density
goals. Comparison with reference areas will allow for
states to control for extrinsic factors (e.g., severe weather
events) and will allow states to attribute bobwhite

population gains more directly to habitat work.

State participation in this collaborative focal
area effort is purely voluntary. Six state agency quail
coordinators launched pilot NBCI focal areas in spring
2013, including Georgia, Iowa, Kentucky, Missouri,
Texas and Virginia. At the conclusion of the 2013
annual NBTC meeting, a total of 14 states reported their
willingness to establish a NBCI focal area within three
years and eight supported creation by spring 2014.

For the first time in the NBCI’s history and
the history of bobwhite quail, large-scale habitat
management will be coupled with collaborative
monitoring—a landmark moment. The next steps are
reporting progress to the NBCI Management Board in
September, completion of the plan in December, and
formal adoption by the NBCI Management Board in
March 2014.

The Kentucky example shows a 5,837-acre NBCI
Pilot Focal Area with observation points for habitat
assessments and listening for singing birds and
bobwhites in June and bobwhite covey calls in October.
This Focal Area is on private land, and landowners
are restoring grassland in a crop land landscape. It is
expected that during the Focal Area life, 10 years, the
minimum 1,500 acres of suitable habitat will have been
achieved.


The Bobwhite Brigade

… swimming, canoeing and basket weaving, it isn’t

T

wenty-one years ago this December, Texas
Cooperative Extension wildlife specialist
Dr. Dale Rollins, an ardent disciple of the
bobwhite with a Ph.D. in wildlife ecology, was
driving from a San Angelo Lions Club presentation
to an evening talk to 4-H leaders in Childress, over
200 miles due north.

Somewhere between the Pearl of the Conchos
and the namesake of the Tennessean who was primary
author of the Texas Declaration of Independence, he
began thinking how, given the demand, he could spend
his entire career driving from place-to-place giving three
“conservation awareness” talks daily. And then it struck
him … why couldn’t motivated high school students be
trained to give these “Conservation 101” presentations
… and become “lifetime ambassadors for wildlife
conservation” in the process?

“Driving down the highway was literally when
the epiphany of the Bobwhite Brigade came to mind,”
says Rollins, who went on to found the Rolling Plains
Quail Research Ranch in Rotan 15 years later. “I thought
about it for a couple of days, then called around to some
colleagues to bounce the idea off them.”

This year, 2013, is the 21st anniversary of the
first Bobwhite Brigade and two decades of awards and
accolades for the effectiveness of a one-week “summer
camp” light years apart from others of the genre in

senior-level college coursework in ecology, media skills,
psychology, leadership and more.

The Brigade curriculum reveals the unusual
grafting of what Rollins describes as “the best of boot
camp with the best of a 4-H camp.” Participants (or

“cadets”) are grouped into “coveys.” Covey leaders are
adults (who may or may not know anything about quail),
assistant covey leaders are previous cadets chosen for
their understanding of the camp’s philosophy and rigor,
and their performance during and after the camp they
attended.

Coveys are up by 7 a.m. or before, “marching”
and performing their assigned “cadences” before
breakfast. When you think “cadence,” think…
Texas ranchers they’ve got class
Bobwhite quail nest in bunchgrass.
Cattle grazing is okay,
If it’s done the proper way.
Or
A quail’s life is full of tests,
Many critters break up their nests.
Possums, skunks, and raccoons too,
It’s enough to make a bobwhite blue.

myriad ways … starting with full immersion in the
subject matter and very high expectations for the
teenaged participants.

In fact, of the 100 hours cadets are there, they are
“up and at it” 85 of them. The approach and philosophy
is in stark contrast to that of public schools, which
Rollins contends have “as a rule, dumbed down content
to reach the masses.” He describes the camp’s content as


(They’ve got a million of ‘em, folks.)

The long days are packed with short
presentations—in keeping with this audience’s attention
spans for such—on a diversity of subjects. There’s quail
behavior and biology, quail politics and economics, radio
telemetry, photography, plant collecting and pressing,
constructing tri-fold displays, firearms safety, habitat
evaluation, range management, media interview skills,

PowerPoint presentation skills, hunting’s
role in conservation, team building and
critical thinking skills —all interspersed
with hands-on activities with all the
subjects.

And, oh yeah … how to write
thank-you notes. And even those will be
graded before camp is over.

Within two hours of arriving,
cadets dissect quail to Lynyrd Skynyrd’s
“Free Bird” … the refrain of which they’ve
declared the national anthem of quail
management … and they may wake up to
the “Ride of the Valkyries” or the “Texas
Aggie War Hymn.”

Or as Rollins phrases it, the camp
is “fueled by adrenaline, good food and
rock & roll…we’ve perfected the art
of getting everything possible from a
15-year-old.”

A week of swimming, canoeing
and basket weaving, it isn’t.

“It was always intended to
recruit and train ambassadors for
wildlife conservation in the broadest
sense,” Rollins says. “We want to push
kids, train them, excite them, educate
them in natural resources conservation
and give them media skills, presentation
skills, leadership skills and team skills.

Graduating cadets are then
expected to return to their communities
and have a public profile, giving
conservation presentations and keeping
a notebook of their accomplishments.
They can then compete to return to
camp as assistant covey leader and be
eligible for one of the six $500 to $1,500
college scholarships offered to the
assistants at the conclusion of each camp.

“We do get some biologists out
of it, certainly. But that’s not our goal. We
want outdoor conservation disciples for
the remainder of their lives and careers.
We might just be training a judge
or a senator … or a future head of
the Farm Service Agency,” Rollins
says.

“In their first hour of
the camp I tell them that we will
transform them from coal to
diamonds. Their initial name tag,
in fact, is a plastic baggie with a
piece of charcoal in it, pinned to

their lapel. Diamond creation requires
time, heat and pressure. We don’t have
much time so we increase the heat and
pressure.

“And you know what? Contrary
to what we were advised when we were
designing our curriculum and daily
schedule for the Bobwhite Brigade, these
high school kids respond to the regimen,
the competition, the pace and the
expectations.”

The cadets have come from
across Texas. And Arkansas. And Kansas.
And Georgia, Michigan, New Mexico,
North Dakota and Oklahoma. Anyone
from age 13 to 17 is eligible. In fact,
Rollins encourages every NBCI state to
consider recruiting a couple of young
folks to participate.

And in the end, a half-dozen
of the best, who have stuck with it, walk
away each year with college scholarships.
And an understanding of science-based
conservation they will pass on to others
throughout their lives.
In other words, think…
Hail o hail Bobwhite Brigade
Conservation on parade
Mama, Mama can’t you see,
What this camp has done for me!

Success breeds imitation and the
501(C)3 Bobwhite Brigade became the
forerunner of the Texas Brigades, which now also
includes the bass, buckskin, ranch and waterfowl
components. The Texas Brigades is a cooperative
effort of Texas A&M AgriLife Extension
Service, Texas Wildlife Association, Texas
Wildlife Association Foundation, Texas Parks
& Wildlife, USDA-NRCS, and Texas Chapters
of Quail Coalition. The Brigades are supported
by numerous individuals, private businesses,
foundations, and other non-profit organizations.
Cost of the bobwhite camp is
$400 but there are many sources
of assistance. For information on
the Bobwhite Brigade, please visit
http://www.texasbrigades.org/
Camps/Bobwhite-Brigade. For a
video testimonial, visit http://goo.
gl/TFGNjP.
(Photos courtesy of Bobwhite
Brigade.)


STATE CONSERVATION REPORTS

T

his section contains highlights of bobwhite conservation in 2012-13 as reported
by NBCI state quail coordinators. Detailed information on 2013 population
and hunting prospects are available on state agency web sites, many of which
are embedded in the electronic version of this report which will be posted on www.
bringbackbobwhites.org. State quail coordinator contact information can be found at the
end of each report.

Bobwhite conservationists in 2012-13
continued aggressive and innovative restoration and
management. As usual, habitat work was dominated
by USDA programs. State agency and partner
efforts to improve wild bobwhite populations are
supported by key approaches, categorized as 1)
specific state programs and plans, 2) evaluation
of management effectiveness, 3) research and 4)
outreach. Some highlights from state conservation
reports for these categories are listed below.
Conservation Highlights:
• USDA Farm Bill programs: See reports
for Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas,
Louisiana, Maryland, Missouri, Mississippi,
New Jersey, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas and
West Virginia. Iowa is the only NBCI state
using the USDA Voluntary Public Access
program to improve bobwhite habitat.
• State Agency Habitat Programs: Alabama,
Longleaf Pine Ecosystem Restoration
Initiative; Arkansas, Acres for Wildlife;
Florida, Upland Ecosystem Restoration
Project; Georgia, Bobwhite Quail Initiative/
Focal Landscapes; Indiana, Quail Habitat
Incentives; Iowa, Adopt a Wildlife Area;
Kentucky, Green River Conservation

Texas Parks and Wildlife
Department received authority to
spend an additional $4M of state
funds for quail habitat focal area
development during the next two
years.

Reserve Enhancement; Louisiana, East Gulf
Coastal Plain Prescribed Burn Initiative;
Mississippi, Fire on the Forty; Missouri,
Quail Emphasis Areas, Missouri, Quail
Forever staff partnership; North Carolina,
Cooperative Upland Habitat Restoration
and Enhancement; and Tennessee, Quail
Forever staff partnership.
• Wild quail restoration plans: South
Carolina’s new NBCI-based plan; Missouri
revising 10-year NBCI-based plan;
Delaware, Maryland and New Jersey
working toward participation in the NBCI
Model Focal Area Program with quail
population monitoring, landowner attitude
surveys and formation of partnerships
(e.g., New Jersey Habitat Improvement
Team). Also, Texas Parks and Wildlife
Department received authority to spend
an additional $4M of state funds for quail
habitat focal area development during the
next two years—these ear-marked quail
funds resulted from a 2005-era game bird
stamp that had been accumulating because
spending had not been authorized.
• Evaluation of management effectiveness:
many states measure quail population
response to management, and some include
grassland birds in monitoring. Monitoring
was done in 2012-13 in Alabama, Delaware,
Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Kentucky,
Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, New
Jersey, Texas and Virginia. Georgia, Iowa,
Kentucky, Missouri, Ohio, Texas and
Virginia volunteered to serve as pilot testing
areas for development of the NBCI Model
Focal Area Program.

• Research: Florida, effects of scale of fire
on quail; Georgia, bobwhite population
response to supplemental feeding and
predator management; Illinois, CRP;
Indiana, quail behavior; Kentucky,
patch-burn grazing; Oklahoma, quail
ecology, including predators, disease and
aflatoxicosis; Texas, quail translocation,
wild strain parent-reared quail stocking,
quail genetics, dispersal, and productivity,
disease, parasites and toxins.

because of long-term declines in habitat and quail
populations, quail are losing relevancy in some state
programs. In the east, New Jersey and Delaware
conservation reports reveal first-ever zero counts
for bobwhites in statewide breeding bird surveys,
and North Carolina ended statewide bobwhite
population monitoring. Similarly, bobwhite
abundance is so uncertain in Pennsylvania and
West Virginia that their quail coordinators could
not complete the NBCI Habitat Accomplishments
Inventory because they could not meet the
minimum criteria of existence of wild bobwhite
• Outreach: key programs continued,
populations.
including Missouri’s Covey Headquarters

The trends for quail hunting likewise
Newsletter and Grass is Greener promotion,
continue to be negative, with New Jersey continuing
New Jersey’s Quail in the Classroom
a statewide closure of wild bobwhite hunting,
program, North Carolina’s Upland Gazette
Delaware shortening its hunting season by 30 days
and Kentucky’s Bobwhite Battalion
(harvest of wild bobwhites had declined from 10%
FACEBOOK and Salato quail exhibit. Three
of reported harvest in last decade to zero in most
major new developments in outreach include
recent harvest survey), and Indiana reporting the
an entire issue of Outdoor
possibility of a reduction in huntingOklahoma magazine
season length. Quail hunting has
Three major
being devoted to
been reduced in many states to
new developments in
the Oklahoma
individuals willing to travel long
Department
distances and/or to take advantage
outreach include an entire
of Wildlife
of local limited wild quail hunting
issue of Outdoor Oklahoma
Conservation’s
or use of released-domesticated
new quail habitat
bobwhites. Quail hunting, as
magazine being devoted to
management
the Oklahoma Department of measured by state agency surveys,
guide, Missouri’s
has increasingly shifted to
Wildlife Conservation’s new released-domesticated bobwhites.
Bee Ridge private
land focus area
Over the past three SOTB
quail habitat management
being featured in
reports, the proportion of
guide, Missouri’s Bee Ridge
the State of The
domesticated quail in state
Birds 2013 Report
private land focal area being agency harvest surveys is as
on Private Lands
follows: Georgia, 97% (783,795
featured in the State of The
(North American
domestic quail); Missouri, 25%;
Birds 2013 Report on Private New Jersey, 97%; Alabama, 91%
Bird Conservation
Initiative), and
Lands (North American Bird (462,500 domestic quail) (2013
New Jersey’s
SOTB); Delaware, 100% (2013
Conservation Initiative),
Bobwhite
SOTB); and Virginia, 82% (85,184
Calendar.
domestic quail) (2013 SOTB).
and New Jersey’s Bobwhite
Regardless of the proven lack
Calendar.
Negative Trends Continue
of value of released-domesticated

Amid the many efforts
bobwhites for population restoration
to improve conditions for bobwhites,
(see Quail VII published papers by Thackston
once again we find bobwhite populations, hunting
et al. and Kinsey et al.), these birds are serving an
and habitat at record lows. In the west, a 20important role in dog training and quail hunting.
year low in quail abundance was reported for
Oklahoma. Severe weather, drought or above
average precipitation or temperatures, are to blame
for short-term population declines. However,

Alabama—Alabama Department of Conservation & Natural Resources
Population: Alabama quail populations have decreased annually by 3% over the last 5 years.
Hunting: From the 2011-2012 hunter survey results, Alabama had an estimated 4,800 wild quail hunters who harvested
approximately 47,000 wild birds. There were an estimated 9,400 pen-raised quail hunters who harvested approximately
462,500 pen-raised birds. On Wildlife Management Areas there were a total of 1,004 man-days of quail hunting with
1,134 wild quail harvested in 2011-2012.
Management: Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries (WFF) continues to manage for quail with the following programs:
• WFF is continuing Longleaf Pine restoration on approximately 5,000 acres on Barbour WMA and Fred T.
Stimpson Sanctuary. Also, a prescribed burning program is taking place on these two areas to restore grassland
habitats. Shortleaf Pine restoration continues on 1,850 acres on WFF and Forever Wild lands on Lauderdale and
Freedom Hills WMAs.
• The WFF Landowner Incentive Program, Longleaf Pine Ecosystem Restoration Initiative, continued with funds
received from USFWS partnership funds for projects with private landowners in high priority areas. During the
past year, 1,643 acres were restored and a prescribed burning program will be implemented on these projects for
the next 30 years. Additionally 400 acres of prescribed burning was conducted for 2012.
• A monitoring program continues at Barbour WMA and Fred T. Stimpson Sanctuary to look at effects of longleaf
restoration on quail and songbird populations. This year Freedom Hills WMA shortleaf restoration and James
D. Martin and Mud Creek WMA’s native warm season grass areas were added to the monitoring program.
Both breeding bird surveys and fall covey counts are conducted annually on these properties to assess bird
populations.
• Alabama State Parks, in partnership with WFF, is working with both Quail Forever and NWTF on habitat
projects at Wind Creek State Park consisting of longleaf pine restoration and enhancement of existing longleaf.
NBCI State Quail Coordinator: Carrie Threadgill, Wildlife Biologist, carrie.threadgill@dcnr.alabama.gov
Arkansas—Arkansas Game & Fish Commission
Population: Arkansas’s quail population has declined by approximately 70% over the past 30 years.
Hunting: No hunting statistics have been collected in Arkansas in recent history.
Management: The agency continues to operate under a statewide quail plan and as a partner with NBCI. Quail management
highlights include:
• Management of about 6,200 acres of CP33 Buffers and 5,411.4 quail-friendly acres in CP38E/Safe Grass.
• An effective push to increase Native Warm-Season Grass establishment on pastures through our Acres For
Wildlife Program.
• Outreach seminars and workshops to the general public as well as agency professionals.
• Partnered with other conservation organizations to enhance or restore over 10,000 acres of glade/woodland and
grassland habitats on several Wildlife Management Areas.
NBCI State Quail Coordinator: Clifton Jackson, cjackson@agfc.state.ar.us
Delaware—Delaware Division of Fish & Wildlife
Population: 2011 statewide BBS bobwhite abundance index was 0.0 bobwhite per route—the first time no bobwhite have been
detected on any BBS routes in Delaware. Bobwhite have declined an average of 10.1% per year during the long-term
period 1966-2011. This decline is even more pronounced when examining the most recent short-term, 11-year period
(2001-2011), during which bobwhite declined an average of 20.6% per year.
Hunting: Delaware’s 2011-12 estimated harvest was 4,821 quail. Total estimated number of hunters was 396. Of note, estimated
take of pen-raised, released birds comprised 100% of the estimated total harvest—the first time this has ever been
observed. In recent years, harvest of wild birds has accounted for 10-11% of overall harvest.
Management: Our agency continues to operate as a partner with the National Bobwhite Conservation Initiative (NBCI). In
addition, we are continuing a comprehensive planning effort to identify quail focal areas, where management and research
efforts would be directed. Quail management highlights include:
• Conducted intensive biological surveys in June and July to document the presence and distribution of bobwhite
within potential focal areas and adjacent control areas.
• Completed a human dimensions survey to assess landowner attitudes. Survey respondents were generally very
favorable towards restoring habitat on their property for bobwhite.
• Revised our focal areas based on results from biological and human dimensions surveys. Focal areas will include
both private lands and State Wildlife Areas where habitat may be managed intensively for quail.
• Remaining obstacles include securing stable funding and incentivizing a private lands habitat program that
would be competitive with current CREP programs and commodity prices.
• Enhanced and restored 386 acres of quail habitat on State Wildlife Areas through hedgerow creation, burning,
brush control, and invasive species control.
• Restored 35 acres of early successional habitat on private lands for bobwhite quail.
• Changed regulations to shorten the length of Delaware’s quail season. The season will now end the first Saturday
in January, effectively shortening the season by 30 days. The intent of this regulatory change was to remove late
season harvest pressure which was likely additive to quail mortality.
NBCI State Quail Coordinator: Matt DiBona, Wildlife Biologist, matthew.dibona@state.de.us


Florida—Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission
Population: Florida’s bobwhite population has declined by approximately 82% since 1966.
Hunting: Annual bobwhite harvest has declined from 2.7 million in 1970 to about 210,000. No recent hunter/hunting statistics are
available.
Management: Florida’s restoration and management of bobwhites continues to operate under a State Strategic Plan for Northern
Bobwhite Restoration that is integrated with the National Bobwhite Conservation Initiative. Bobwhite management
highlights include the following:
• To advance Florida’s strategy, the Upland Ecosystem Restoration Project (UERP) was developed in 2006 as a
cooperative effort between the state’s four primary land management agencies (Fish and Wildlife Commission,
Florida Forest Service, Department of Environmental Protection, and U.S. Forest Service) and Tall Timbers
Research Station and Land Conservancy. The primary objective of UERP is to prioritize, design, and implement
on-the-ground management to improve populations of northern bobwhite and other grassland species on public
lands throughout Florida.
• UERP comprises over 100,000 acres of public land and has generated over $400,000 of outside funding for
increased land management activities. In addition to management, what makes UERP unique is it provides
a statewide view of the issues, facilitates communication within and among agencies, and all partners share a
common vision of improving populations of northern bobwhite.
• Collectively, under UERP and other efforts, Florida has over 175,000 acres of total area of quail habitat on
public land under favorable management for bobwhites and other grassland species. These public land areas are
collectively managed by the four primary land management agencies (noted above). In addition, Tall Timbers
Research Station oversees 218,008 acres of total area of quail habitat on private land.
• Completed over 200 fall covey call counts and habitat and species monitoring for other grassland species on
public land bobwhite focal areas.
• Research: In the second year of a multi-year cooperative project between FWC, Tall Timbers Research Station,
University of Georgia, and Mississippi State University on the Babcock-Webb WMA (Charlotte County, FL). The
primary goal of the project is to examine the effects of scale of fire on breeding season survival, reproduction,
movements and survival post burn.
NBCI State Quail Coordinator: Greg Hagan, Greg.Hagan@MyFWC.com

Acres
of
Quail
Habitat
Management

NBCI
STATE
AGENCY
BOBWHITE
HABITAT
MANAGEMENT
INVENTORY
INDEX

2012

Florida

Total
243,920
Acres
Managed

180,000

158,055

160,000

140,000

120,000

100,000

85,530

80,000

60,000

40,000

20,000

0

335

FL
FWCC
Private
Land

FL
Public
Land

FL
Tall
Timbers
RS
&
LC

FL
Public
&
Private
Partner
Programs


Acres
of
Quail
Habitat
&
Management

Georgia—Georgia Department of Natural Resources
Population: Georgia’s bobwhite population has declined by more than 85% since 1966.
Hunting: 2006-2009, hunter numbers remained stable; estimated quail harvest increased 30%. Proportion of pen-reared birds in
the harvest increased 59% (130,645); wild quail harvest declined by 79% (27,416).
Management: Georgia WRD’s quail restoration efforts are transitioning from the initial phase of the Bobwhite Quail Initiative
(BQI) to implementation of the National Bobwhite Conservation Initiative (NBCI) 2.0 via Georgia’s BQI: 2013-2023. Plan
release projected for Fall 2013 and will target our restoration efforts into spatially explicit sub-county Focal Landscapes.
Quail management highlights include:
• For 2012, 20 BQI financial incentive Cooperators enrolled 38 crop fields and 6 pine stands. Cooperators
established 41 miles of field borders and with other BQI practices positively impacted more than 2,400 acres
on working farms and forests across 15 Upper Coastal Plain counties. These represent the last of BQI financial
incentive contracts and expired at the end of 2012.
• Farm Bill habitats include:
• CRP Longleaf—200,000 acres.
• CP33—2,222 acres.
• CP38 Pine Savannah Restoration—8,500 acres with additional 3,000 acres recently allocated.
• WLFW Gopher Tortoise FY12—$5.7 million total: planned 8,800 acres of Longleaf Planting, 19,000 acres
of Prescribed Burning, and 14,700 acres of Timber Stand Improvement (pre-commercial/commercial
thinning and/or hardwood midstory removal via herbicide).
• Wild quail translocation permits have been granted to expedite restoration on 5 sites.
• Current bobwhite research includes monitoring bobwhite population response to supplemental feeding and
predator management at DiLane WMA.
• Georgia is one of the NBTC states piloting the NBCI Focal Area Monitoring Program. This includes monitoring
bird populations and surveying habitat at Silver Lake Wildlife Management Area and accompanying reference
area located in Mitchell County.
NBCI State Quail Coordinators: Reggie Thackston, reggie.thackston@dnr.state.ga.us, and James Tomberlin, james.tomberlin@dnr.
state.ga.us

NBCI
STATE
AGENCY
BOBWHITE
HABITAT
MANAGEMENT
INVENTORY
INDEX
2012

Georgia

Total
390,247
Acres
Managed

Total
Area
of
Quail
Habitat

Acres
Managed

600,000

520,065

500,000

377,047

400,000

300,000

200,000

100,000

0

13,680

1,007

*GA
DNR
Private
Land

Incen>ve

GA
DNR
Public
Land

25,000
13,200

Jones
Center
at

Ichuaway

GA
DNR
&
Private
Partner
Programs

*Enrolled
in
incen>ve/compliance
program


Tall
Timbers
RS
&
LC

Illinois—Illinois Department of Natural Resources
Population: We conduct roadside counts very similar to the BBS. In 2012, observers recorded an average of 0.84 quail per stop (up
20%). Quail were recorded at 36.0% of the stops (up 16%). The difference between 2011 and 2012 were not statistically
significant.
Hunting: Our harvest estimates are based upon results from the 2011-12 Illinois Hunter Harvest Survey. Surveyors added
questions that asked hunters about their harvest of game farm birds. Even though they had been instructed to report only
wild bird harvest in past surveys, it appears that game farm birds may have been inflating past year’s totals. Consequently,
we cannot honestly compare previous years’ surveys with the 2011-12 data. This year, an estimated 12, 668 hunters
harvested 46,633 wild quail. Quail hunters averaged 0.87 quail per trip.
Management: IDNR continues to operate under a statewide wildlife action plan where quail are considered a species in greatest
need of conservation and as a partner with NBCI. Quail management highlights include the following:
• Over 2,500 acres are under SAFE contracts in focal areas within the quail range.
• FSA approved the expansion of our SAFE boundaries and the addition of shrubland wildlife focal areas in
October 2012. SAFE is presently open for enrollment.
• The Conservation Reserve Program is by far the greatest source of potential wildlife habitat in Illinois. Illinois
has 996,551 acres of CRP, a 33,899 acre reduction from last year. We have 61,354 acres enrolled in CP33.
• Justin Shew completed the third year of monitoring in his research project, “Avian Response to Mid-Contract
Management on Smooth Brome and Native-Grass-Dominated Conservation Reserve Program Fields in
Northern Illinois”.
NBCI State Quail Coordinator: Michael Wefer, Wildlife Field Operations Section Head/acting Ag and Grassland Wildlife Program
Manager, mike.wefer@illinois.gov
Indiana—Indiana Division of Fish & Wildlife
Population: Preliminary results of the 2013 statewide bobwhite whistle count index indicate a significant 24.3% increase from
2012, climbing from 0.57 to 0.71 birds/stop. The results also show there was no change from the 5- and 10-year averages,
but a significant 37.2% decline from the 25-year average. Among Indiana’s three bird conservation regions (BCR), only
the Central Hardwoods BCR in southern Indiana has more than 1 bird/stop (1.31).
Hunting: 15,000 small game harvest questionnaires were sent to Indiana license holders following the 2012-2013 hunting season.
Questionnaires have been returned, but the data has yet to be analyzed (expect results in the 2014 SOTB report). Data
from the 2010-2011 hunting season survey showed an estimated 15,080 bobwhite hunters (+7.7% vs. ‘08-’09) harvested a
record low 19,866 bobwhites (−6.5% vs. ‘08-’09).
Management: Within the Indiana Division of Fish and Wildlife, the Private Lands Unit, Public Lands Unit, and Wildlife Science
Unit are working to improve quail habitat and management. Bobwhite management highlights during the 2012 calendar
year include the following:
• The Private Lands Unit continued working with landowners to create habitat using increased incentives in 11
Quail Habitat Priority Areas.
• The Private Lands Unit added 284 acres of CP33 for a total enrollment of 13,878 acres and added 706 acres of
bobwhite-specific CP38 for a total enrollment of 7,654 acres. The unit also added an additional 1,271 acres of
quail friendly habitat through the Henslow’s and grasshopper sparrow-specific CP38.
• The Public Lands Unit added 445 acres of new quail habitat (converted forest and fescue) and improved another
3,080 acres (2377 acres burned, 370 acres in food plot, 183 acres disked, and 150 acres sprayed) on eight fish and
wildlife areas using funds dedicated to their Early Successional Habitat Initiative.
• The Wildlife Science Unit continues monitoring population trends and harvest, and researching the impacts of
disturbance on northern bobwhite productivity and dispersal at Glendale FWA. In 2013, the Wildlife Science
Unit will evaluate its current population monitoring and will likely move toward NBCI coordinated population
monitoring.
• The Division of Fish and Wildlife has proposed changes to the bobwhite hunting season which includes a start
date of November 1st and a reduction in the season length to 45 days in approximately nineteen counties in
central Indiana.
NBCI State Quail Coordinator: Budd Veverka, Research Biologist, bveverka@dnr.in.gov


Acres
Habitat
Management

Iowa—Iowa Department of Natural Resources
Population: 2012 statewide bobwhite August roadside index of 0.39 quail per 30-mile route was 63% above the 2011 index. This is
38% and 72% below the 10-year and long-term (50-year) averages, respectively.
Hunting: During the 2012-13 hunting season an estimated 8,769 hunters (down 7%) harvested 20,474 quail (up significantly)
compared to 2011-12 season.
Management: Iowa Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) manages bobwhite by partnering with multiple agencies, NGOs and
private citizens, as well as the NBCI. Quail management highlights include the following:
• Iowa is one of six states testing the NBCI focal area concept in the spring of 2013. Focal and reference areas of
6,000 acres each have been identified with bird and habitat monitoring techniques being evaluated.
• To address concerns about low pheasant and quail populations the IDNR and state Pheasant/Quail Forever
chapters have joined forces to enhance habitat on and around core wildlife properties. The Adopt a wildlife area
program has identified 39 priority sites with 10 sites likely to have quail as a priority focus.
• Iowa has a 46,500-acre allocation of CP33 Buffers of which 25,148 acres have been enrolled.
• Bobwhites are a species of conservation importance identified in the State Wildlife Action Plan.
• The Iowa Upland Game Bird Advisory Group recommended that restoration activities for bobwhite should focus
on habitat restoration and better landowner marketing.
• USDA Voluntary Public Access funds are being used to create more CP33 and CP38 practices that will create
quail habitat and will be open for public hunting.
NBCI State Quail Coordinator: Todd Bogenschutz, todd.bogenschutz@dnr.iowa.gov

NBCI
STATE
AGENCY
BOBWHITE
HABITAT
MANAGEMENT
INVENTORY
INDEX
2012

Iowa

Total
24,939
Acres
Managed

16,000

14,000

13,682

12,000

10,000

8,000

6,264

6,000

4,993

4,000

2,000

0

Agency
Public
Land


Agency
Private
Land

Private
Lands
-‐
PF
Farmbill

Biologists

NBCI's Bobwhite Almanac, State of the Bobwhite 2013

NBCI's Bobwhite Almanac, State of the Bobwhite 2013

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NBCI's Bobwhite Almanac, State of the Bobwhite 2013