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BOBWHITE QUAIL NUMBERS NOSEDIVE; LEADERS SEEK CURE

November 16, 2005
Contact: Tony Young (850) 488-7867

Wildlife conservation authorities met at Tall Timbers Research Station near Tallahassee Monday to map a plan to reverse a 25-year decline in Florida’s bobwhite quail population.

According to the Northern Bobwhite Conservation Initiative (NBCI), Florida’s quail population has dropped between 3 and 5 percent each year for a total decrease of 70 percent since 1980. Experts say that is merely a symptom of a much bigger problem – loss of quality habitat. Where hunters in Florida were once harvesting around 2.5 million quail annually during the 1960s, they are now taking fewer than a quarter-million.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) in cooperation with Tall Timbers, called on Florida Agriculture Commissioner Charles H. Bronson, Florida Chief Financial Officer Tom Gallagher, U.S. Rep. Allen Boyd, and other state, federal and key conservation organizations to assemble for the Leadership Summit on Bobwhite Management on Florida’s Public Lands.

The purpose of the half-day meeting was to enlist support of leaders and key stakeholders in public land management, conservation and bobwhite management for the focus of restoring habitats for quail. The initiative will help not only quail but also several other birds, including the threatened red-cockaded woodpecker and the Florida scrub-jay, as well as more than 40 endangered or threatened plant species, all of which depend on the same open pine woods ecosystem for their survival.

Florida has roughly 6 million acres of public lands. Approximately 1.5 million of this acreage could provide suitable quail habitat if proper management techniques such as frequent prescribed burning and timber thinning were employed.

“I feel really good about the level of leadership of those who attended this meeting, and I am confident that we have the ability and commitment to get some things done to help quail restoration in this state,” said Congressman Boyd.

Represented at the meeting were the state’s Division of Forestry, the U.S. Forest Service, University of Florida, water management districts, Department of Environmental Protection, Allied Sportsmen of Florida, Quail Unlimited, Pheasants/Quail Forever, U.S. Department of Defense, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Georgia Department of Natural Resources.

“The number of hunters in this state has been declining significantly, and I feel we can help turn this around by increasing quality hunting lands and game. This will help pass down the hunting tradition to future generations and increase hunting families in Florida,” said Kate Ireland, chair of Tall Timbers’ board of directors and owner of Foshalee Plantation.

Other states within the bobwhite quail’s range, including Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Texas, have already started similar initiatives. South Carolina and Mississippi also are on the verge of getting involved, and the goal of the NBCI is to enlist nine more states, adding 2.8 million coveys of quail to the existing populations and improve habitat on 81 million acres within the bird’s range.

The FWC is committed to forming a partnership with several interested agencies and organizations to share the cost of time and resources spent on the challenge of turning this situation around. One need identified at the meeting was to create a full-time paid position to spearhead this initiative.

“This is the last chance anyone has to help the bobwhite quail in this state and reverse this downward spiral in its population. As part of this team, I promise to do everything in my power to see that tomorrow’s generation can enjoy this great species,” said FWC Commissioner Richard Corbett.
 

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