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MEMBERSHIP DOLLARS AT WORK:
Quail Management

The bobwhite quail is one of the premiere game birds in Mississippi. While the excitement of quail enthusiasts has continued to flourish, quail populations have seen drastic declines over the past few decades. According to most recent data, quail populations have been decreasing at a rate of 3 percent per year since 1966. However, many things can be done to improve existing lands for bobwhite quail.

Many landowners and quail enthusiasts have expressed an interest in managing for quail in Mississippi. Once very abundant in the state, quail were a great source of recreation for hunters, as well as those of us who just enjoy hearing the lonesome call of the bobwhite.

“Wildlife Mississippi has undergone extensive efforts to work with private landowners to demonstrate practical and effective quail management techniques. Some of these efforts include developing partnerships with other like minded conservation organizations to work to increase quail populations around the state,” says William J. Van Devender, President of Wildlife Mississippi.

One such partnership is with the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks (MDWFP) through the Landowner Incentives Program (LIP).

According to Daniel Coggin, a Field Biologist with Wildlife Mississippi, “The LIP is a new initiative of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that provides state wildlife agencies and their partners with funds to enhance, restore and protect imperiled habitats for at risk species of wildlife on private lands. Within Mississippi, the longleaf pine region of the southeast, Blackland Prairie of the northeast and central sections and bottomland hardwood areas of the Delta were chosen as those of greatest conservation need. Landowners who qualify will be able to receive funds to cost share practices such as site preparation, prescribed burning, tree and native warm season grass plantings and herbicide applications. Biologists from the MDWFP and Wildlife Mississippi will also provide technical guidance to all interested landowners.”

Wildlife Mississippi is also working with the MDWFP and the Mississippi State University (Department of Wildlife and Fisheries) towards the development of a statewide step-down plan for the Northern Bobwhite Conservation Initiative (NBCI). The goal of the NBCI is to restore Northern bobwhite populations range-wide to an average density equivalent to that which existed on improvable acres in 1980.

Regarding grasslands, the NBCI Plan calls for the preservation and enhancement of the quality of grasslands, pastures and range land by utilizing vegetation management practices and grazing regimes that favor the retention and improvement of native plant communities beneficial to bobwhites and other wildlife.

Wildlife Mississippi, working with funding through the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Private Stewardship Grant Program, is working to increase the number of acres of native grasslands within the state. To date, Wildlife Mississippi and its partners have restored approximately 1,300 acres of native grasslands in Mississippi.

Wildlife Mississippi is also working with landowners through the implementation of several Farm Bill programs that help cost share practices beneficial to quail. One such program is the Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program (WHIP). Through the WHIP, private landowners are provided technical and financial assistance by the Natural Resources Conservation Service to develop upland, wetland, riparian and aquatic habitat on their property. Practices such as prescribed burning and strip disking, two of the most important quail management practices, are cost shared under this program.

Another Farm Bill Program that benefits quail is the Continuous Conservation Reserve Program Practice CP 33 (Habitat Buffers for Upland Birds). Administered by the Farm Service Agency, the primary purpose of this program is to provide essential wildlife habitat components including food, nesting cover and escape cover for quail and other upland birds in cropland areas. The CP 33 practice is designed to create suitable habitat by creating buffers around cropland areas. These buffers will not only provide critical habitat for bobwhite quail but will also serve as transition zones and travel corridors between cropland and other types of habitat.

This linking of fragmented habitats with buffers will greatly increase the use of an area by bobwhite quail and other wildlife. In addition to providing wildlife habitat, buffers will also reduce erosion, protect water quality by trapping sediment, chemicals and other pollutants and serve as buffers from sensitive areas when applying pesticides or fertilizers. By May of 2006, Wildlife Mississippi had restored approximately 300 acres under this program.

Lastly, Wildlife Mississippi has been working with several landowners who are enrolled in the Grassland Reserve Program (GRP). When the Grassland Reserve Act was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives, of the 16 original co sponsors, four of them were Congressmen from Mississippi. The GRP provides the technical expertise as well as the financial means to those landowners and groups who have an interest in restoring the native prairies of the state. The program authorizes the U.S. Department of Agriculture to purchase either permanent or 30-year easements from landowners in exchange for a cash payment. The program also authorizes the restoration of native grasslands which is particularly important in the Blackland Prairie of Mississippi. These grasslands once supported vast populations of bobwhite quail, wild turkey and a variety of species of songbirds.

The program permits grazing on the easement property and haying is permitted after the nesting season for birds in the local area. Prohibitions are intended to prevent cultivation of the soil for row crops, and otherwise to break the soil for production of agricultural commodities.

For more information on any of the initiatives or programs mentioned, please contact Daniel S. Coggin at Wildlife Mississippi's Northeast Mississippi Field Office at (662) 256 4486 or dcoggin@wildlifemiss.org.