S ometimes it is enlightening to view
the world from a different perspec-tive.
What would a bobwhite ( or an
old time bird hunter) think were the most
important historical milestones in North
Carolina over the past 50 years? Keep in
mind we are talking about a wild bobwhite,
not one of his
pudgy, pen-raised
cousins.
And I will
warn you up
front, the
world can be
pretty depress-ing
from a bobwhite’s perspective, so before
you read further, promise me you won’t
go out and shoot your dog.
The 1930s
Let’s start our history of quail management
in 1931, with the publication of Herbert
Stoddard’s seminal work The Bobwhite
Quail, Its Habits, Preservation, and Increase.
This book provides a scientific basis on
which to manage bobwhites. Across our
state during this decade, wildfires set back
plant succession on over 200,000 acres an-nually,
and inefficient crop fields yield less
than 20 bushels of corn per acre. The re-sulting
burned- over woodlands and weedy
crop fields don’t add much to the state’s
economy, but from the bobwhite’s perspec-tive,
they produce an abundance of excel-lent
food and cover.
1965 at 2,826,640 birds, driven by a surge
in idle cropland— to an apex of 2,165,486
acres. Unfortunately for the bobwhite, the
peak in idle land signals a shift from a
Piedmont landscape dominated by open
farm fields to one dominated by forests.
By the end of the decade, the extent of
Piedmont farmland declines by half.
In 1966 the Breeding Bird Survey be-gins
to collect long- term trend data on
bird populations, including bobwhites.
The survey subsequently documents
parallel declines in the whole suite of
birds dependent on grasslands and early-successional
habitat and gives strength
to a habitat- based approach to managing
early- successional birds.
The 1970s
Row crop farming continues its shift from
the Piedmont to the Coastal Plain. Quail
populations explode in eastern North Caro-lina
as pocosin habitat is drained and
The Upland Gazette Spring 2004
Spring 2004 / Volume 9, Issue 1 Published by the N. C. Wildlife Resources Commission
What’s Inside . . .
States Support NBCI . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Quail’s Habitat Cousins . . . . . . . . . 4
Small Game Awards . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Spotlight on CURE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Land Manager’s Toolbox . . . . . . . . 7
Recent History from a Bobwhite’s Perspective
The 1940s
During this decade, mechanization
comes to the farm and the number of
farms in the state peaks at over 300,000.
Annual lespedezas— the major hay
crop— cover over one- half million acres.
Small, diverse farms support an abun-dance
of bobwhites. During the war years,
North Carolina closes its state- supported
game farm and ends the import of Mexican
bobwhites. The North Carolina Wildlife
Resources Commission forms in 1947.
The 1950s
By 1950 the Commission has nine district
wildlife biologists who provide technical
guidance and recommend wildlife plant-ings
to focus attention on the importance
of habitat to bobwhites— a significant de-parture
from the “ game farm” philosophy.
The Commission also implements its first
hunter harvest survey in 1950, which pro-vides
long- term trend data on hunter effort
and harvest. The survey estimates a har-vest
of 1,775,471 quail. By comparison,
the estimated deer harvest is a meager
14,616 animals. Several years of summer
drought in the middle of this decade cause
quail populations to decline. Consequently,
the Commission initiates annual summer
bobwhite call counts in 1957 to provide an
index to bobwhite abundance.
The 1960s
Ahhh . . . the boom times for bobwhites.
North Carolina’s quail harvest peaks in
Continued on page 2
“. . . well- distributed bits of bushy
refuges not more than 100 yards
apart over both open woodlands
and fields are by far the best pro-tection
one can provide for the
quail; then the cooper’s hawks go
hungry in a land of plenty, for the
quail can easily elude them.”
— Herbert Stoddard
2 The Upland Gazette Spring 2004
During the 1990s a series of cooperative
quail research projects begin on farmland
in eastern North Carolina. These projects,
each one building upon the findings of
previous projects, will provide the biologi-cal
basis for the Commission’s Cooperative
Upland habitat Restoration and Enhance-ment
( CURE) Program.
The Southeast Quail Study Group
forms in 1995 to increase cooperation,
communication and coordination among
quail managers and
researchers across the
region. By mid- decade
North Carolina quail
and deer harvests are
approximately equal,
with 225,302 quail and
216,114 deer. Over
thirty years, the bobwhite harvest has de-clined
by 92 percent and the deer harvest
has increased 543 percent. Over a 20- year
period, the quail population has decreased
by 8.5 percent annually in the Piedmont
region— steeper than any other habitat
across quail range.
The 2000s
By the year 2000 North Carolina has only
56,000 farms, representing a decline of
81 percent over 50 years. Wildfires have
burned an average of 23,000 acres of North
Carolina woodlands each year over the pre-vious
decade, but this is 92 percent fewer
acres than in the 1940s. Fire suppression has
dramatically changed plant communities
across the state. Without regular fire, forb-dominated
plant communities have devel-oped
into closed- canopy woodlands or
brush- dominated habitats suitable for deer
and turkey, but no longer able to support
viable quail populations.
The Commission initiates its CURE Pro-gram
in 2000, and by 2003, fall bobwhite
populations are stable or increasing on the
three private- land cooperatives enrolled in
the pilot. In 2002 the Northern Bobwhite
Conservation Initiative ( NBCI) implements
a range wide plan for the recovery of the
northern bobwhite. ( See NBCI Update, pg. 3.)
Into the Future
As this time line demonstrates, land use
drives quail populations. The choices that
converted to farmland. Afew years later,
as landowners clear out the resulting
windrows, populations drop. Land use
continues to intensify. North Carolina’s
cattle inventory exceeds one million for
the first time in 1975. Farmers adopt her-bicide
technology, and weedy crop fields
disappear from the landscape, reducing
quail food and cover.
The 1980s
Soybean production peaks with a 2,100,000
acre crop in 1982. Concern over the impact
of farming on water quality leads Congress
to pass the first federal Farm Bill in 1985.
The Farm Bill provides a mechanism for
implementing conservation practices on
private land. Also in 1985, concern over the
declining quail population leads sportsmen
to form Quail Unlimited, a private organi-zation
working for bobwhite conservation.
The 1990s
In this decade, a billion fast- growing
loblolly pine trees occupy over 2 million
acres. Young pine plantations can be excel-lent
quail habitat, but tiny seedlings quickly
grow into trees that suppress quail food
and cover plants. Farm productivity climbs
as North Carolina corn yields average
95 bushels per acre. Yields have increased
by 80 percent over 60 years, but the weeds
that made the cornfield valuable to quail are
a thing of the past. On a positive note, fed-eral
agencies approve “ Roundup ™ ready
soybeans” which gives no- till farming a
boost. Young bobwhites find abundant in-sects
in no- till fields. The Commission’s free
wildlife plant materials program ends in
1994 and the agency’s technical guidance
focus shifts to providing for the year- round
habitat requirements of bobwhites.
individual landowners make will determine
the future of these birds. From a statewide
perspective the task may seem insurmount-able,
but landowners, sportsmen, conserva-tionists
and biologists can make progress
locally, restoring bobwhites.
So far our successes have been modest.
Over the first three years of the CURE
Program, quail populations increased on
just three pilot areas, totaling a little over
15,000 acres. The emphasis on these coop-eratives
has been to work
with small groups of
landowners to put back
some of the farm elements
that benefit quail by con-ducting
prescribed burns
in wooded areas, planting
field borders of native vege-tation,
and sowing pastures of native warm-season
grasses. Bobwhites have evolved to
hang on in plots of suitable habitat and to
quickly take advantage of any favorable
land- use changes. Our experience in the
CURE areas confirms that belief.
Recent wildlife- friendly initiatives by
the farm and forestry community encour-age
optimism on a larger scale. U. S. De-partment
of Agriculture programs, U. S.
Fish and Wildlife Service Programs, and
private conservation practices help will-ing
landowners make wildlife part of the
working landscape as never before.
I encourage each of you to join us
by making your property part of the
first step toward recovery. The second
step is to encourage your neighbors to
think like a bobwhite.
None of us want to return to 19 bushels-per-
acre corn yields or let wildfires burn
unabated. But when enough North Car-olinians
manage field edges and ditch
banks for habitat and carefully thin and
burn pine forests, we will see bobwhite
population increases.
Herbert Stoddard gave us the recipe for
restoring bobwhites 73 years ago. Land-owners
who are applying the recipe are
seeing populations increase. If we work
together, we can make thinking like a
bobwhite a more positive experience in
the 21st century.
— Terry Sharpe, Agricultural Liaison Biologist
Established 1996
Published twice a year by the N. C. Wildlife Resources
Commission, Division of Wildlife Management. De-signed
by the Division of Conservation Education. To
become a subscriber, please send your name and ad-dress
to the following address: The Upland Gazette, Divi-sion
of Wildlife Management, N. C. Wildlife Resources
Commission, 1722 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, N. C.
27699- 1722. Comments and suggestions are welcome.
Send them to Kate Pipkin, Editor, at the above address.
The Upland Gazette Spring 2004 3
N orthern Bobwhite Conservation
Initiative ( NBCI) is generating
enthusiasm at national, regional
and state levels. Bobwhite conservation is
coming rapidly to the forefront on state
and federal agency agendas and in non-government
conservation organization
circles. The bobwhite quail is gaining de-served
recognition as a “ National Priority
and National Treasure!”
An NBCI cornerstone is capitalizing
on existing federal Farm Bill conservation
programs, supplemented by state pro-grams
where they exist, to increase the
amount and distribution of quail nesting
and brood- rearing habitat. The grassy-weedy
“ idle” areas that were once wide-spread
across our landscape are now in
critically short supply. These areas have
long been favorite quail haunts, and their
absence is the major limiting factor for
bobwhite populations today. Farm Bill
programs are the best tool we have to
restore habitat on a scale large enough
to make a difference. Biologists are realiz-ing
more and more the critical importance
of landscaping that restores habitat. Creat-ing
small and widely separated islands of
habitat often doesn’t produce the desired
results. Bobwhite populations respond
better when large blocks of habitat are
developed and when corridors of habitat
connect the blocks.
Twenty- two states are now included
in NBCI and have established habitat and
population goals for bobwhites. Of course,
having goals on paper and getting habitat
on the ground are different propositions.
It takes cooperation to make things hap-pen
on the ground— knowledgeable pro-fessionals
working with landowners to
improve habitat. Fish and wildlife agen-cies
in 21 states, including North Caro-lina,
employ statewide quail coordinators.
North Carolina and nine other states also
have full- time agricultural liaisons work-ing
with U. S. Department of Agriculture
to capitalize on Farm Bill programs for
enhancing habitat for quail and other
wildlife. Three other states have part- time
liaisons. Seven state fish and wildlife agen-cies
have cost- share biologist positions
with the USDA Natural Resources Con-servation
Service ( NRCS), and several
more, including North Carolina, are in the
process of establishing agreements through
the Technical Service Provider provision
of the 2002 Farm Bill. Three state fish and
wildlife agencies are cost- sharing to hire
Quail Unlimited Regional Directors dedi-cated
to their states— in my opinion this is
where much more collaboration is needed.
Five states have completed statewide
or focal- area quail recovery plans based
on the NBCI, and at least eight others are
More States Covey- up in Support of NBCI
Northern Bobwhite Conservation Initiative Update
The Northern Bobwhite Conservation Ini-tiative
( NBCI) is a range- wide plan to re-store
habitat and recover bobwhite popu-lations
through collaboration between
state and federal agencies, conservation
organizations and private landowners.
The NBCI is the brainchild of the South-eastern
Association of Fish and Wildlife
Agencies, through the Southeast Quail
Study Group, a coalition of dedicated
quail biologists, managers and research-ers.
Although the plan originated in the
Southeast, it will eventually encompass
most or all historic bobwhite states.
For more information visit http:// www.
qu. org/ seqsg/ nbci/ nbci. cfm.
Bobwhite quail naturally lay about 15 eggs.
Continued on page 8
4 The Upland Gazette Spring 2004
While the song of the meadowlark is sweet
and melodious, you can easily mistake the
grasshopper sparrow’s song for the buzz
of a grasshopper. These birds sing in a va-riety
of grassland settings but are most
abundant in regions with a lot of pasture
land. They tend to like shorter and patch-ier
grasses than quail and they can even
be successful in properly managed fescue.
Light to moderate grazing is an excellent
way to maintain suitable meadowlark and
grasshopper sparrow habitat. Mowing and
cutting hay can also maintain short- grass
conditions, but many nests are lost to
mowing during the late- April to mid-
August breeding season.
One of the grassland species that gen-erates
much conservation interest is the
Henslow’s sparrow ( Ammodramus hen-slowii).
In North Carolina, this bird breeds
almost exclusively at two large grassland
areas associated with Voice of America
radio towers in eastern North Carolina. The
sheer size of these grasslands, many hun-dreds
of acres each, is the primary reason
for the presence of this olive- brown bird
with a song reminiscent of a hiccup. During
winter, Henslow’s are found in longleaf sa-vannas
in states south of here, but to what
extent they use North Carolina’s longleaf
savannas in winter is not well known.
The Bachman’s sparrow ( Aimophila
aestivalis) is a grassland bird that para-doxically
lives in the woods. Not just
any woods, mind you, but open piney
woods with a lush grass understory,
habitat now found predominantly in
frequently- burned longleaf pine forests
in the Sandhills and Southern Coastal
Plain. With the decline of open pine
forests, some Bachman’s sparrows have
begun nesting in clearcuts, old fields,
and power line rights- of- way. This drab
and secretive bird has a beautiful song—
a clear whistle followed by trills— that
is the best clue to its presence.
During the winter, North Carolina is
inundated with large numbers of savanna
sparrows ( Passerculus sandwichensis). The
savanna sparrow is an unremarkable-looking
little brown bird whose most
distinguishing field mark is a pale yellow-ish
coloring above its eye. They forage in
loose flocks in pastures and row crop fields
with crop stubble. Savanna sparrows leave
the state in the spring to breed in grass-lands
farther north and west.
The loggerhead shrike ( Lanius ludovi-cianus)
nests in trees but does most of its
foraging over short- grass areas. Shrikes
feed on large insects, mice, lizards, snakes
and even small songbirds. Lacking the
strong talons of raptors, shrikes will im-pale
their prey on barbed wire or thorns,
allowing the shrikes to tear off the flesh
with their hooked beaks. Shrikes will
benefit from the planting of thorny trees
and thickets near short- grass areas, or by
erecting “ shrike posts.” These 8 to 10- foot
posts, with barbed wire loosely wrapped
around the top, placed in the middle of
larger openings, expand the foraging range
of shrikes and kestrels ( which do not prey
on quail) and provide singing posts for
songbirds. The barbed wire and location
away from woodland edges discourages
use by predators of quail like the Cooper’s
hawk ( Accipiter cooperii).
All of these birds, with the exception
of the shrike, build their nests on or near
the ground. The female weaves a nest cup
out of grasses and other fine materials and
tucks it under a grass clump. Like quail,
Quail’s Habitat Cousins: Grassland Birds
A long with the bobwhite quail
( Colinus virginianus), other grass-land
birds have been declining in
population across the United States. While
North Carolina has relatively few true
grassland bird specialists compared to other
regions of the country, we still have ample
opportunities to enjoy and help protect sev-eral
of these “ habitat cousins” of quail.
If you wish to see grassland birds,
you have to be willing to work for the re-ward.
Several of our grassland specialists,
particularly the sparrows, are notoriously
difficult to observe and identify. Many
have the habit of flying low over the
grasses when flushed, then dropping
like a rock to the ground. If you run to
the spot where you saw the bird land, it
will often not flush or let itself been seen
again, as many grassland sparrows will
run along the ground and then hold tight
under a clump of broomstraw.
Two of the most widespread breeding
grassland birds in the state are the grass-hopper
sparrow ( Ammodramus savannarum)
and eastern meadowlark ( Sturnella magna).
The loggerhead shrike was nick-named
" butcher bird" by early
settlers. It does not prey on quail.
The Upland Gazette Spring 2004 5
Pass It Along. . .
We are working to expand our mailing list to in-clude
other interested landowners and sportsmen.
Please pass along your copy to friends who may be
interested. Send names of others who may find the
information useful to
The Upland Gazette
Division of Wildlife Management
N. C. Wildlife Resources Commission
1722 Mail Service Center
Raleigh, NC 27699- 1722
( Note: Hunters who participated in last season’s
Avid Quail and Grouse Hunter Survey will auto-matically
be included in further mailings and
do not need to reply.)
Name_________________________________
Address_______________________________
City________________ State____ Zip______
Name_________________________________
Address_______________________________
City________________ State____ Zip______
✁
Biologist of the Year Award
Terry Sharpe, N. C. Wildlife Resource Commission At their 2003 annual meeting, the South-east
Quail Study Group declared Terry Sharpe Biologist of the Year. Terry has worked with
quail and other small game for much of his 27 years with the N. C. Wildlife Resources Com-mission.
A graduate of both N. C. State University and Louisiana State University,
Terry started with the Commission in 1976 as a district biologist and worked in several posi-tions
over the years until he became the Commission’s Agricultural Liaison Biologist in 2001.
During his career Terry has struggled with the problem of declining quail numbers in North
Carolina and sought solutions. He has worked to improve and implement federal Farm Bill
conservation programs, participated in research programs to evaluate ways to benefit wildlife
on working farms, promoted controlled burning, and built many partnerships throughout the
Southeast to accomplish other far- reaching goals.
“ Terry has always been innovative to find ways
to make things happen and get projects off the
ground,” said Don Hayes, private lands coordinator.
Recently, his career efforts have culminated in
the creation of North Carolina’s Cooperative Upland
habitat Restoration and Enhancement ( CURE) program.
CURE blends game and non- game management, ad-dressing
the objectives of both the Northern Bobwhite
Conservation Initiative and Partners in Flight Conserva-tion
Plans by managing early- successional habitat on
a landscape scale.
During the award presentation Mark Gudlin, of
the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, noted that
“ While the rest of us were looking for a cure ( to declin-ing
quail numbers) Terry was implementing one.”
Small Game Awards
Lawrence G. Diedrick Award for Excellence in Small Game Management— Organization
Bennett Brothers Partnership, Northampton County As staunch supporters of the goals
of the Commission’s CURE program, the Bennett Brothers have done much to make their
land wildlife- friendly while maintaining a productive farm. Ninety percent of the farm is
no- till. They have left field edges to grow in native vegetation, planted odd- shaped areas
with milo or sunflowers and use Best Management Practices for weed and pest control.
The property also has five waterfowl impoundments and multiple wildlife openings cleared
in the forested areas. Wildlife habitat on the Bennett property totals 150 acres.
Lawrence G. Diedrick Award for Excellence in Small Game Management— Individual
Charles Grantham, Northampton County Charles Grantham is a strong believer in wildlife
management and has invested a great deal of time and effort to integrate habitat on his
Northampton farm. He has 130 aces of crop land converted to wildlife habitat, 29 acres of
Conservation Reserve program field borders and impoundments, many acres planted for
wildlife food and cover, and an active forest management program of burning, thinning
and planting to revitalize forest habitat in both pine and hardwood stands.
NCWRC Staffer is Biologist of the Year
2003 Southeast Quail Study Group Awards
grassland songbirds will often build a
dome over the top of the nest, making it
very hard to see from above. Predators
still manage to find a good number of
nests and the adults will re- nest several
times throughout the summer. Unlike
quail, the young stay in the nest after
hatching, where they are fed insects by
their parents. The young can fly shortly
after leaving the nest.
All of these birds are area sensitive,
meaning that they will not use habitat
patches smaller than a certain size.
Twenty acres is about the minimum
patch size for grasshopper sparrows
and meadowlarks, although Henslow’s
sparrows may need more than 100 con-tiguous
acres of habitat. Nevertheless,
many of these birds will respond to
small patches of suitable habitat located
within a larger opening. Creating a five-acre
grassland may not be a waste of
time if you locate it in the middle of a
larger crop field. Thinning the edges
of woodlands surrounding fields is
another way to increase the effective
size of a habitat patch.
Many of these species will benefit
from sound quail habitat management.
Quail managers who wish to further
benefit grassland birds can establish
larger grassland openings, arrange
openings closer together and manage
some areas for shorter, sparser grasses
than is typically done for quail.
— Jeff Marcus, Piedmont Faunal
Diversity Biologist
Terry Sharpe ( left) receives a plaque
from Mark Gudlin of the Tennessee
Wildlife Resources Agency.
6 The Upland Gazette Spring 2004
C hallenges, excitement, frustra-tion—
it’s all part of a typical
day’s work on the CURE Coop-erative
at Turnersburg. With a mix of pas-ture,
forest and crops, Turnersburg offers
a variety of management
options, even more so than
at the other two coopera-tives.
However, it is ar-guably
the most urban of
the three cooperatives and
has many more individual
landowners involved. In
the complex arena that
is Turnersburg, there is
never a dull moment.
Burning provides a
good example. Amanage-ment
tool used at all the CURE coopera-tives,
prescribed burning is important for
maintaining grassy areas and managing
forests. Given the relatively high human
density around Turnersburg and the his-torically
low use of prescribed fire, biolo-gist
David Sawyer was very pleased to
find local landowners enthusiastic about
Highs and Lows at the Turnersburg Cooperative
burning, offering more acres than ex-pected.
However, the weather and urban
conditions have stalled progress. Two wet
winters in a row created less- than- ideal
conditions for prescribed burns. When dry
days come along, too often the
wind is blowing in the wrong
direction, ready to carry heavy
smoke across busy rural high-ways.
The Turnersburg team has
to stay on its toes, drip torches
at the ready, waiting for all the
right factors to align. Unfor-tunately,
such a state of readi-ness
is unsustainable and a few
opportunities have been lost.
Exotic plants also challenge
the success of management
practices at Turnersburg. Ahabitat corner-stone
for all the cooperatives is the cultiva-tion
of wildlife- friendly strips of land that
we call field borders around crops and pas-tures.
What makes these areas wildlife-friendly
is the plant composition— warm
season grasses like little bluestem, Indian-grass,
and broom straw, mixed with
wildflowers and legumes like ragweed,
goldenrod and partridge pea. Turnersburg
has a problem with non- native grasses,
Spotlight on
particularly fescue, Bermuda and crab-grass
invading the field borders, crowd-ing
out the native plants that provide food
and shelter for wildlife. Sawyer has found
these grasses particularly troublesome in
narrow field borders ( 15 feet) which are
too shaded by the adjacent trees, creating
a condition that favors the exotic grasses
and limits the growth of sun- loving plants.
These narrow strips also have less plant
structure and cover for ground- nesting
birds, possibly increasing their vulnera-bility
to predators. Sawyer favors wider
field borders, at least 30 feet wide, to in-crease
available habitat and reduce com-petition
from exotic grasses.
One area where Sawyer has tackled
these exotics grasses head- on is in the
pasture. In years past, pasture plants were
primarily soybean or cowpea, small grain
and lespedeza hay. Nowadays, the pre-dominant
pasture plant is fescue, a cool-season
grass introduced from Europe.
This grass grows extremely well in North
Carolina and produces adequate forage
and hay for livestock. Alas, for small game
and wild birds, fescue
might as well be concrete.
It does not provide seeds
for food, it grows too short
to cover the birds, and it
grows so thick that small
creatures cannot find their
way through it.
The Turnersburg man-agement
plans call for the
conversion of several fes-cue
fields back to native
warm- season grasses. It
is a labor- intensive effort
to kill the fescue, disk or
burn, and then plant the
native grass seeds, often
using a special drill for the
purpose. Fields need to be
maintained with an occa-sional
prescribed burn or
disking, mostly to remove
dead material, regenerate
the grasses, and stifle the growth of woody
plants and tree saplings. All of this effort
is well worth the return in value, both in
Controlled burns reintroduce fire
in fire- dependent ecosystems.
The Upland Gazette Spring 2004 7
Spray it!
“ Cover is controlled by controlling the plant succession in the right
direction at the right time and place. Cow, plow, axe, and fire reverse
the succession. Fencing, fire protection, and planting advance it.”
— Aldo Leopold in Game Management, 1933.
I f Leopold was alive today he might add one more tool to his
list. Herbicides are powerful tools that can compliment the
cow, plow, axe and fire to set back succession. Technological
advances in herbicides and application techniques give modern land managers the ability
to selectively remove or increase certain plants or groups of plants.
Herbicides as Management Tool
Like all management tools, herbicides can have positive or negative impacts on wildlife,
depending upon their use. Herbicides can greatly increase crop productivity by eliminating
plants that compete with the crop. Unfortunately, the resulting plant communities in and
around farm fields are less complex, offering
less habitat for wildlife. In fact, the use of herbi-cides
is one of the many factors that played an
important role in range- wide declines of game
birds including bobwhite quail, pheasants and
gray partridge. But today many landowners are
taking advantage of herbicides to create game-bird
habitat and reduce management costs.
Landowner Benefits
I remember well a South Carolina land man-ager’s
herbicide endorsement. His hand crews
complained to him that they didn’t have time
to go back and treat the stumps of all the hard-wood
trees they cut from the right- of- way. His
reply? They didn’t have time not to treat the
stumps. He recognized that an untreated stump
requires cutting at frequent intervals. Had her-bicides
killed the root system, his crews would
never have had to return to that particular tree.
Wildlife Benefits
Hardwood- sprout- dominated plant communities frequently occur on ditch banks and field
edges, as well as in forested areas. Unfortunately, some of these problem hardwoods sprout
readily when treated with the cow, plow, axe or fire. Hardwood- sprout- dominated plant com-munities
produce few quail foods and frequently do not have enough cover to support quail
after leaf fall. A properly timed and applied herbicide treatment can be an important part of
an integrated approach to converting brush- choked woodlands, overgrown fence lines and
forest edges into quality quail habitat of grasses and shrubs. Though initial expense is often
high—$ 40 to $ 80 per acre including application— the benefits, especially when used in combi-nation
with burning, can last for years.
Maintenance of Grassy Areas
Herbicides can also assist landowners in converting sod- forming perennial grasses into pro-ductive
cover. Often disking or burning perennial grasses produces an initially encouraging
response of volunteer or planted vegetation. However, unless the land manager kills the sod
forming grasses, they quickly retake the site. Initial costs are often high, but long- term, herbi-cide
treatment is more cost- effective than repeated soil disturbance.
Frequent burning is essential to maintaining quail habitat in open woodlands or native
grasslands. The heart of an effective burning program is a system of easily- maintained per-manent
fire lines. One trip around the fire lines to spray problem areas with a backpack or di-rected
herbicide sprayer during the growing season can eliminate difficult- to- maintain grassy
areas or brush encroaching the fire line. This advance action can make fire line preparation
easier and burning safer the following winter or spring.
Choosing a Herbicide
Each situation requires individual evaluation to determine the best herbicide prescription from
a broad array of possibilities. For herbicide recommendations specific to your goals, contact
the Cooperative Extension Service in your county. Always read and follow label directions.
Checklist for developing a herbicide
prescription:
• What do you want to accomplish?
• Extent, distribution, and species of
target vegetation
• Adjacent crops
• Time of year/ weather
• Soil type
• Proximity to standing water
• Presence of desirable plants
• Desired plant community
• Availability of application equipment
• Cost
• Mode of action and safety issues of
herbicide under consideration
• Other treatments planned ( cutting,
burning, etc.)
terms of wildlife habitat and livestock
forage. The Turnersburg team has found
that the CURE program gives them the
time and tools to work intensely with
landowners on projects like this. Their
success rate has increased as a result.
Turnersburg has done well to lever-age
federal dollars available through
the Natural Resource Conservation
Service’s Wildlife Habitat Incentives
Program ( WHIP) to establish several
management practices. One of these is
stream- side fencing. Turnersburg is the
only cooperative to use this practice
and it has provided multiple wildlife
and environmental benefits. Fences
were placed about 15– 20 feet from the
top of eroding stream banks. With the
cattle fenced out this buffer area will re-generate
native forbs and shrubs, which
stabilize the stream bank and provide
habitat for wildlife, particularly shrub-nesting
birds. In addition, water quality
will improve because off the reduced
siltation and organic enrichment.
The experience at Turnersburg re-minds
us why CURE is a pilot program.
Some management tools integrate well
into the working farm landscape and
some do not. Some techniques will be
successful at generating habitat, and
others will be, well, not so successful.
We can make all the assumptions we
want, but we are not going to really
know how to increase wildlife popu-lations
on working farms until the
work is done. Apilot program allows
us to learn as we go, make adjustments
as necessary, and finally draw conclu-sions
at the end of the pilot phase.
— Kate Pipkin,
Public Information Biologist
Quick facts about Turnersburg
• Located in Iredell County
• 24 cooperators
• 5,820 acres
• Supported by local chapter of
Quail Unlimited
Land Managers’
TOOLBOX
8 The Upland Gazette Spring 2004
Division of Wildlife Management
N. C. Wildlife Resources Commission
1722 Mail Service Center
Raleigh, NC 27699- 1722
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in the process. Multi- organizational state
quail task forces are operational in two
states, two more are in the early stages,
and at least five states are considering
forming task forces. State quail task forces
will be vital to helping involved state agen-cies
garner the political support necessary
to implement effective bobwhite recovery
programs. This is where citizens interested
in quail and songbird conservation will
need to be active!
In August of 2003, Memorandums of
Understanding were signed between the
NRCS, Quail Unlimited, the Southeastern
Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies
and Mississippi State University to meet
the intent of the 2002 Farm Bill to move the
goals of the NBCI forward. Specifically,
NRCS will make available $ 1.5 million
over the next three years to evaluate the
performance of Farm Bill programs in es-tablishing
quail habitat on the landscape.
Other universities and research organiza-tions
will be able soon to apply for these
funds and the knowledge gained from
these studies will be important when a
new Farm Bill is written in 2007.
A very significant and exciting devel-opment
occurred when the Quail Unlim-ited
Board of Directors approved estab-lishment
of an NBCI Cooperative Habitat
Fund, separate from other Quail Unlimited
funds and governed by a broad- based re-view
committee. Corporate support for
this fund will be sought to create a mean-ingful
funding base for large- scale projects.
Quail Unlimited will also create a high pro-file
awards program for agencies, organi-zations
and individuals making signifi-cant
contributions to the NBCI.
So what is in store for the immediate
future? I am convinced that the momen-tum
of the NBCI will continue to build.
States not included already will develop
bobwhite habitat and population goals.
State quail task forces will continue to
activate and Farm Bill programs will
continue to account for the needs of bob-whites
and all their associated grassland
and shrub- scrub loving cohorts. The char-acter
of our rural landscape will change,
and this time for the benefit of our favor-ite
bird. The bobwhite quail will assume
its rightful place as a “ National Treasure
and National Priority!”
— Breck Carmichael,
NBCI Program Coordinator
Special thanks to Mark Gudlin, Tennessee
Wildlife Resources Agency, for compiling
much of the information used in this update.
Reprinted with permission from Quail
Unlimited magazine.
Continued from page 3
