Farmers get incentive to revive quail population

Published: Friday, July 16, 1999

ALBANY, Ga. (AP) -- In the 1950s, Georgia was known as the quail capital of the world. The bobwhite quail thrived in weeds and shrubs around the edges of fields and found plenty of muscle-building bugs to eat. Quail hunting was a tradition in many families.

All that began to change in the 1960s. Urban sprawl and new farming techniques, including more reliance on pesticides, reduced the bird's habitat and food supply. As a result, Georgia's quail population has declined more than 70 percent in the past 30 years.

Wildlife officials hope they can reverse the trend this fall when they kick off a pilot program known as ''Georgia's Bobwhite Quail Initiative.'' It will offer incentives and cost-sharing payments to landowners who agree to provide quail habitat.

Landowners will have to develop management plans and compete for acceptance into the program, which includes counties in eastern, central and southwestern Georgia.

The quail is a type of small bird that belongs to the same family as pheasants and partridges. The best known in North America is the bobwhite, which is heavily camouflaged to protect it from predators. Young and adult quail eat insects and seed. During the fall and winter, quail live in groups known as coveys.

''There's a number of reasons we should be concerned about quail,'' said Reggie Thaxton, a senior wildlife biologist with the Georgia Department of National Resources Wildlife Resources Division in Forsyth. ''It's part of our heritage. We know there are a lot of people who like quail who aren't hunters. They enjoy hearing and seeing them.''

Also, quail are considered an indicator species a barometer of the ecosystem, Thaxton said.

When quail have problems, other creatures that share their habitat have problems. Those creatures include songbirds such as the prairie warbler, the Bachman's sparrow and the loggerhead shrike.

The habitat they need is called ''early succession'' habitat, which includes such weeds as beggerweed and ragweed, shrubs such as plum and native grasses. The vegetation is generally less than knee-high.

''Quail and these early succession songbirds have been declining quite drastically since the '60s,'' said Thaxton, who will coordinate the initiative. ''This is a pro-active approach to trying to restore early succession habitat and thereby stop the decline before they reach critically low levels.''

Landowners will be encouraged to create hedgerows and field boarders.

Besides providing quail habitat, these areas help reduce soil erosion and stop the flow of sediment that can degrade water quality.