For the Love of Quail Video - Georgia Outdoors

Georgia Public Broadcasting's "Georgia Outdoors", Sharon, returns to explore the beautiful rolling pine-covered Red Hills of southwest Georgia in search of the bobwhite quail! An adorable 5.5oz bird, the bobwhite once populated 37 states in the tens of millions. However, due to habitat loss, their territory shrunk to extreme levels threatening the bird and its survival. Sharon discovers a national effort to conserve the bird's habitat, focused right here in Georgia, thus saving all the animals in the bobwhite quail's ecosystem.

Arkansas joins states to bring back quail

By Arkansas Game and Fish Commission

Arkansans may remember the familiar whoosh of northern bobwhite coveys flushed from fields. That experience is driving some, including Fred Brown, to restore quail across the state so younger generations can feel the thrill.

Brown's view from his Corning home in the northeast corner of the state illustrates the quail's demise.

"I can look out and I can't see the fence on the far end, it seems like it goes on forever," said Brown, who is chairman of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission panel of commissioners. Where once were small farms separated by weedy fence rows -- and maybe an untended plot with overgrowth -- is a precision-leveled field.

Not exactly perfect quail habitat, which greatly diminished during the latter half of the 20th Century. Ninety percent of Arkansas is privately owned and certainly won't be returning to the small farms and land use that dominated before the 1970s, Jim Harris points out in "The Quest for Quail" in the March-April issue of Arkansas Wildlife magazine.

Several neighboring states have shown that quail habitat can be restored.

In 2002, the National Bobwhite Conservation Initiative began, unifying 25 state fish and wildlife agencies to restore quail habitat and wild populations of the bird.

"Our division made it a priority to ramp up our quail restoration effort in line with the initiative," said Brad Carner, chief of the Game and Fish wildlife management division. "What I'd say is different now from then: It was simply a wildlife division priority, and it became difficult as the years passed for us to maintain the emphasis that it needed, both from a manpower and a funding standpoint."

TX Rolling Plains Bobwhite Brigade celebrates 25 years

Gary Bomar

A premiere wildlife leadership camp is celebrating 25 years.

"The Rolling Plains Bobwhite Brigade has reached maturity at 25 years of age," said Annaliese Scoggin,a wildlife biologist with Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and the incoming president of the Brigade. This intensive wildlife leadership camp was the brainchild of Dr. Dale Rollins, then wildlife specialist with Texas AgriLife Extension.

The first of several related camps across the state, the Rolling Plains Bobwhite Brigade helped drive the Texas Brigades to the organization it is now. Other camps include Buckskin Brigades, Bass Brigade, Waterfowl, Ranch and even a Coastal Brigade.

The camp is still accepting applicants. Cost is $500 per cadet, but several sponsors provide scholarships for youth to attend.

"(The) Cost to attend has never been a factor. If a youth is serious in attending, we will find the funds," said Rollins and other camp personnel.

If interested, contact Annaliese Scoggin via email, annaliese.scoggin@tpwd.texas.gov.

To celebrate the 25 years, a special anniversary event will be held April 29 at the Gillespie County Fairgrounds in Fredericksburg. 

Read the full article