Bobwhites once filled fields in the south, but their numbers have dropped. A new partnership and plan at Pea Ridge National Military Park may help boost their numbers.
Ten years ago you might see a bobwhite or two on the park land, said Kevin Eads, park superintendent. In recent years park managers have seen an increase, Eads said.
Changes at Pea Ridge
National park officials developed a vegetation management plan during 2012 to 2014 that will keep viewing areas open, but bring back a more natural habitat in the 4,300 acre park. Fescue was not part of the landscape during 1862 and cedar trees were not encroaching on open fields. Not all areas of the park will change, but the 20-year implementation plan calls for:
• 168 acres to stay fescue grasses to aid in viewing the park
• 284 acres to be turned into native grass prairie
• 11 acres of rotational crops
• Six acres of orchards
• Reduction of red cedar at the park
• Thinning of oak and hickory forest.
Source: Pea Ridge National Military Park vegetation management plan
A new vegetation plan meant to return the battlefield land to a state closer to what it was during the battle could further help the bobwhites population.
The plan calls for about two-thirds of the park's fields, those off the main road, to convert to native grasses, Eads said. The low-cut fields that allow visitors to imagine 1862 battle lines will remain, but more distant fields will be planted in prairie grasses.
"Those native grasses will look similar to some of the crops that would have been there," Eads said.
The military park was created to restore and preserve the battlefield so people can learn from it, Eads said.
Research for the new vegetation plan started in 2012 and park staff took their landscape cues from 1836 and 1837 survey records.
The plan calls for thinning the forests and removing invasive species like cedar trees, which will be cut and reused in fences around the battlefield or for mulch.
The plan set the stage for a partnership between the park, Arkansas Game & Fish Commission and National Bobwhite Conservation Initiative. It is the initiative's first bobwhite focal area in Arkansas and the first at a national park.
BOBWHITE DECLINE
Bobwhite hunting used to be a pastime on par with fried catfish, barbecue and Southeast Conference football, said Don McKenzie, National Bobwhite Conservation Initiative director. Families would take out hunting dogs together and watch them point out the birds. There would be the thrill of the flush and the seconds-long window shooting. Then the hunters would bring home a few of the tender all-white meat birds.
The tradition "slipped away on our generation's watch," he said.
At the same time, both farming practices and residential development replaced habitat where bobwhites one thrived.
Records were started in 1966 and the bobwhite has been on the decline ever since, McKenzie said.
Bobwhites prefer rough, uncleared areas where they can live under tall grass. Cattle can thrive on native prairie grasses, but fields are often planted in fescue, McKenzie said.
Warm season grasses, such as prairie grasses, grow in a clump, said Kurtis Cecil, a life science faculty member at Northwest Arkansas Community College in Bentonville. Fescue is a sod grass that is tightly compacted, so letting it grow tall doesn't help prairie birds.
"They can't even get through it," said Cecil, who is also an associate member of the National Bobwhite Technical Committee and a member of other groups supporting quail.
It's not just bobwhites that lost habitat, Cecil said. Half the eastern grassland species of birds are in decline. Among them are the greater prairie chicken, Henslow's sparrow, dickcissel, Eastern meadowlark, loggerhead shrike, Bachman's sparrow, indigo bunting, Eastern towhee, prairie warblers, and field sparrows, he said.
Cecil has loved the bobwhite since he flushed his first bird at age 5. He almost stepped on one at his grandfather's house and the bird flew quickly up into the air.
The birds are comical to watch as they run around with the babies the size of a thumb tip, he said.
"Those of us who really love them can't explain it sometimes," Cecil said.
There's the spring "bob-white" sounding whistle where the male calls his mate and a lesser-known fall covey call. The latter sounds for about 10 minutes before sunrise near the end of October. This fall he and his students counted around a dozen coveys at stations across about half the Pea Ridge park.
Repopulating deer and wild turkey was easy compared to the bobwhite, McKenzie said. The habitat was in place for the deer, only the animals had to be moved. Not so with the bobwhite.
"We have to change the habitat," he said.
QUAIL ALSO BENEFIT
Pea Ridge is the laboratory that will prove proper habitat also grows quail, said Clifton Jackson, small game program coordinator and quail biologist with Arkansas Game & Fish Commission. Great habitat builds many different species, Jackson said.
He also sees opportunity for landowners near the park.
"People who do quail-friendly things will have birds," he said.
Converting even 5 percent of land to warm-season grass such as big bluestem, little bluestem or gamma grass will help. The name of the grass doesn't matter as much as the structure, Jackson said. Quail can tunnel along in prairie grass where short patches with thatch on the ground won't benefit them.
"Quail can't go to Home Depot and get a bale of hay if it's just one golf course looking lawn out there," he said.
Pea Ridge manages park land with prescribed fire. Other landowners can do the same and the state will help them create a safe burn plan.
"Historical records indicate that everything in Arkansas burned," Jackson said.
A fire in the cool of March that burns low across the ground in minutes and is followed by spring rains helps stave off the encroaching cedar and pines. It cleans up leaf litter on the ground and can reduce the chance for summer wildfire.
"That's how everybody used to do it," he said.
Arkansas Game & Fish will help count the birds and monitor habitat at Pea Ridge. The National Bobwhite Conservation Initiative will provide educational resources and is also interested in tracking the birds, McKenzie said.
The military park stands ready to learn from the other agencies, Eads said. The new vegetation plan is for 20 years and efforts will be prioritized by funding and available people.
Bobwhites are at the bottom of the food chain but they out-reproduce their predators, McKenzie said. He estimates the population will be restored when it reaches half a bird per acre of park land, about 180 covey.
"That may be a little ambitious, but it's not unreasonable," he said. "There's no such thing as too many bobwhites. Everybody loves them. Everybody wants more."
NW News on 03/01/2015