FWC HOSTS MEETING ON BOBWHITE QUAIL HABITAT ENHANCEMENT

January 21, 2005
Contact: Scott Sanders (850) 488-3831

Interested in managing land to improve bobwhite quail habitat? Need technical or financial assistance? Help is on the way. Mark your calendar for Mar. 7 and make plans to attend a Farm Bill conservation workshop in Arcadia. The workshop will be at Turner Agri-Civic Exhibition Hall.

The workshop is part of a special project to help restore and improve bobwhite quail habitat on native rangeland in south-central Florida.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has partnered with the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, the University of Florida, the University of Georgia and Tall Timbers Research Station (Tallahassee) landowners in this habitat enhancement project. Representatives from these agencies will be on hand to share expertise.

The project will focus on cost-share incentives to landowners who agree to work to increase quail populations that have seen a significant decline. While bobwhite quail are the focal species for this program, other wildlife species, including wild turkeys, white-tailed deer and songbirds, will also benefit from these land management practices.

The program specifically targets ranches in Charlotte, DeSoto, Glades, Highlands and Sarasota counties, but anyone interested in quail habitat is welcome.

The financial incentives will be in the form of cost-share payments for these conservation practices: prescribed burning, brush management (double-drum roller chopping, disking, herbicide application), and range planting (planting for wildlife habitat). Mowing, fencing, water trough, pipelines, invasive/exotic plant control, prescribed grazing, and upland wildlife habitat management will also be included in the program.

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