Upland gazette : North Carolina small game notes.

              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

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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