By Kim N. Price
Covey Rise Publisher

It is no secret to anyone who quail hunts that quail populations have declined in many areas to the point of near extinction. However, there is encouraging news for even small landowners who practice proper habitat management.

Quail habitat management does not have to take place on tracts of land of 10,000 acres or more. Wildlife biologists will tell you a managed quail habitat on tracts of land under a thousand acres and much less can produce four to five coveys an hour.
The focus should not be on the total acres managed, but on the habitat practices that produce and sustain quail populations within that defined area.

Your habitat will change from year to year without constant attention. Even the most minute change in habitat can have a major impact on quail populations, according to Judy Barnes, with the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources’ Small Game Project.

"Look at areas that use to hold birds and see what changes have taken place over the years. A minor change may take a minor improvement whereas a major change may take more time and effort to improve habitat conditions."

Landowners now have more information available to them to develop quail habitat than at any other time. More governmental organizations are today focused on habitat restoration for northern bobwhites than ever before.

The most recent announced program with serious implications for quail habitat improvement comes from the new bobwhite buffers practice (CP33) which is the first federal recognition under the Northern Bobwhite Conservation Initiative. Working with FSA and NRCS agents, state wildlife and conservation agencies have been given a tremendous boost which proves the best opportunity yet to work with farmers and land managers to restore bobwhites.

Some have called it the best news for bobwhite restoration in a generation.
Small landowners are in many ways the key to bobwhite restoration success. One tract here, another contiguous tract in all directions, and the habitat management practices at one locale will support efforts at others.

Contiguous tracts of suitable quail habitat cannot always be realized, but a small landowner can find success in bobwhite restoration by practicing proper quail habitat management within his own property.

Those management practices could occur on agricultural lands by providing quality nesting and brood rearing areas in fields or transitional field borders. Management practices to enhance forest lands on smaller tracts can be effective as well. Thinning and prescribed burning of pine stands will enhance habitat for quail and other wildlife species.

An open canopy will provide sunlight to reach the forest floor which in turn stimulates the growth of legumes and other plants valuable for quail.

A landowner with an overgrown pine stand, mixed with invasive hardwoods and no vegetative growth has a unique opportunity to develop quail habitat.

BASF’s Bobby Watkins explains: "Big game species cannot find food in there, so how can quail? Ever wonder why deer come to the side of the road to find green grass?"
It makes sense.

Selective thinning to remove the dense timber opens the canopy to allow sunshine to reach the land. Quail can survive in timber areas where the understory has been cleared and an effective rotational burning program has been in place.

Prescribed fire eliminates or reduces understory vegetation, providing bare ground, which returns nutrients to the soil, stimulates the growth of valuable legumes and weedy plants and controls woody vegetation.

It is part of a simple, yet complex process that determines quail survivability and success from one season to another. While it is obvious there are many other factors in quail restoration, quality habitat still stands out as the key ingredient.

Ted DeVos, a wildlife biologist and registered forester with Bach and DeVos Forestry and Wildlife Services, LLC, solidifies the equation better than anyone.

"On properties that truly practice good quail management, populations are responding strongly. Many of the quail plantations in South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, and Alabama have begun to reverse the declining trend, stopped releasing pen-raised birds and are seeing populations as high or higher than historical records.

"Success stories are not limited to large landholdings devoted to quail management, however. Here in Alabama several properties that have not had huntable quail in decades are again seeing populations approaching a bird-per-acre in well managed areas. "Even properties that have limited acreage devoted to quail, background quail populations exist even though some pre-season supplementation may be necessary, and hunters are reporting finding wild coveys regularly.

"There is no legitimate shortcut for true wild quail management. The prescription is habitat based and things like feeding, predator control, etc., while legitimate, fall second to habitat management."
Kim N. Price is the publisher of Covey Rise, the nation’s leading quail hunting publication.
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