The mission to revive bobwhite quailin Augusta Countyhaslocal landowners teaming up to re-create their lost habitat through the help of agovernmentinitiative.
It's a project that beganwith quail, but its scope reaches far beyond just one species. Bringing back the native grasses and wildflowers that are perfect quailhabitat is also a boon tobig game like deer, pollinators (and by extension agriculture), songbirds andoverallbiodiversity,saidJustin Folks, a private lands wildlife biologist with the Natural Resources Conservation Service.
"You soon realize it's much much bigger than quail," he said.
The aim is to recreate this type of habitat that's been lost over the years, converted into grazing pasture and farmland, eliminating the native grassland that the quail need to sustain population in an area.
Quail areaboom or bust species, and it's been allbust with the birds' loss of habitat in the region. But getting back to a boom could beas simple as recreating thislost habitat — itjust requires private landowners to get on board with the effort, Folks said.
Creating this habitat means private land needs tobe converted from farmland or grazing pasture. Even something as small as a field border of native grassland makes a difference, as they try to stitch together this "quail quilt" in Augusta County, hesaid.
Folks said he understands whylandowners would be reluctant to give up parts of their property that they use for production for this project, but that the native grassland habitat brings more biodiversity,more balance to their farmland — and would bebeneficial in keeping down pests thateat crops.
"It's kind of a leap of faith for landowners," Folkssaid."We're not out trying to get rid of production land — I like to eat food too."
Oftentimes landowners already have this native grassland on their property but instead of keeping it, mow it because they think it's ugly and serves no purpose, Folks said. Even this time of year in the fall and heading into winter, this land is very important to sustaining resident wildlife and he urges landowners to kick their "recreational mowing disorder"for the benefit of the species that need it.
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While therehave beenpockets of greatquail revitalization success in other parts of Virginia, the effort in Augusta County has fallen behind its target goal. The hope was to convert 15,000 acres into quail habitat in Augusta County and so far the program has created 700 acres since it was launched in 2010, Folks said.
It takes a community effortto reach this goal and be able to sustain a quail population in the area once again. That's why Fort Defiance landowner Richard Obenschain got on board, and he only had to sacrificeabout 2 acres of his total 77 to be used as a field border on his property.
"You have to start somewhere," he said.
He's gotten a lot of support from the government in putting in the right plants in the right places to bring back the native grassland habitat.
"It's pretty painless," he said."You feel like you've done your part."
Jason Hallacher, a tenant on Obenschain'sproperty, said he flushed out six to eight quail from the area recently, which was exciting for him. He said it wasn't surprising though that with a habitat designed forquail, he in fact did see some of the birds.
"It's not rocket science," he said."You can only control so many things in the environment and one thing you can control is creating more habitat."
Hallacher, who works as a fish biologist with the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries,keeps bees on the property and so he saw the opportunity for putting in a quail habitat that's good for pollinators too as "an opportunity to kind of kill two birds with one stone."
"We're kind of going old school — this isn't a new idea, it's kind of letting nature run its course," he said.
The key is just continuing to grow neighbor participation to expandthe habitat for the quail and the community as a whole has the chance to benefit, Folks said. It only takes 50 acres to sustain10 to 16 quail, known as a "covey,"and this can be achieved fairly easily, he said.
It's tough getting people to participate in the program, but"you don't have to give up a whole lot to get a lot in return," Folks said. Even if no quail show up, there are still all the benefits of increased pollination, songbirds and overall biodiversity.
"This is a unique opportunity for landowners to give back," Hallacher said.
When a plan for habitat creation comes together and he's got a satisfied landowner, well that's Folks' favorite part.
"It has to start with someone, you can set an example for others," Folks said.
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