According to the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission’s Strategic Quail Management Plan, lack of nesting and brood-rearing cover is the biggest factor limiting bobwhite quail numbers across its range.
“This is a direct result of a long-term trend of reducing stands of native warm-season grasses …” according to the strategic plan. “Properly managed native warm-season grasses with abundant forbs provide good to excellent nesting and brood-rearing habitat.”
There is even good potential in the industrial pine forests that dominate south Arkansas.
“Using techniques that permit or encourage the development of bobwhite-friendly herbaceous understory during the early years of stand establishment … would be beneficial to quail survival,” according to the strategic plan. These include periodic thinning and regular prescribed burning.
“Applying all or some of these techniques can add one to seven or more coveys of bobwhites for each 1,000 acres of properly managed habitat.”
These management techniques also improve habitat for whitetailed deer and wild turkeys.
Aaron Jeffries, the former quail biologist for the Missouri Department of Conservation, explained how simple quail management techniques benefit deer, turkeys and other species in an MDC blog titled “How Quail Habitat Management Can Help Your Deer Season.”
Robert Lyons and Tim Ginnett expanded on this theme in an article titled “Integrating deer, quail and turkey habitat,” which was published by the Texas A&M Agricultural Communications Department.
Land with good quail habitat is some of the most desirable and most valuable hunting property in Oklahoma. Huntable quail populations could increase the value of hunting rights to property in Arkansas by creating additional hunting opportunities.