Post by Deleted on Apr 7, 2014 19:23:04 GMT -5
By Marcus Schneck | mschneck@pennlive.com
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on April 07, 2014 at 7:41 PM, updated April 07, 2014 at 7:57 PM
The Pennsylvania Game Commission is moving ahead with preliminary moves that could eventually lead to attempts to restore wild bobwhite quail populations to some parts of the state.
And, that's about the most upbeat thing that can be said for the small, covey-loving gamebird, whose once-famous, whistling "bob-white" call ceased to be a familiar sound on the Pennsylvania landscape nearly a generation ago.
Even the man in charge of the effort for the commission – Ian Gregg, supervisor of the commission's Gamebird Section – wasn't sounding all that optimistic when he updated the project status for the board of game commissioners.
"The trends are not good anywhere," he said. "Pretty much everything that the bobwhite exists, both long-term over the last 40 years and short-term over the last five years, the trends are negative."
The small bird has been devastated by habitat loss as small farms, with their fencerows of dense cover, have been swallowed up into larger farms with edge-to-edge cultivation and no fencerows, suburban developments, strip malls and the like.
The National Bobwhite Conservation Initiative, a coalition of federal agencies, researches and state wildlife agencies in the 30 states where quail were once common, described the plight of the quail as a "landscape-scale habitat problem."
It's doubtful that researchers from Penn State will be able to point to many quail left in Pennsylvania in a report they hope to provide in preliminary form later this spring and even more iffy that they will be able to determine that any quail they do find are wild birds rather than pen-raised birds that have been released.
Recent work – revealed since the commission launched its quail effort in a management plan for the species approved by commissioners in October 2011 – has hinted that DNA evidence may not be able to distinguish wild quail from pen-raised birds.
Nevertheless, in an additional push to zero-in on any remaining areas in the state that the commission might develop as the "small, short-term focus areas" that the NBCI foresees as the beginning of restoration efforts, the commission is preparing to survey the small number of hunters who still pursue quail in the state for their thoughts of prime locations.
The commission also plans to survey gamebird propagators across the state to try to get some estimation on how many quail are being raised each year in the state, and if possible where they are being released.
The NBCI sees all of that as preliminary to the real work of restoring quail populations across the eastern U.S. Results from efforts on the small focus areas would eventually be rolled out over larger areas of potential habitat.
And, that's not going to be a short-term effort.
"We're not going to become the (once-quail-rich) Southeast or Texas," cautioned Gregg. "In the 10-year timeframe we're probably not going to see huntable populations in Pennsylvania."
In addition to lack of widespread, suitable habitat, quail also are susceptible to winter weather.
"Any winter with more than 40 inches of snow is hard on quail," Gregg told commissioners, noting that could be another limiting factor across much of the state, other than some areas in southcentral and southeastern Pennsylvania.
However, Commissioner James Jay Delaney Jr., the prime supporter of the quail effort on the board of commissioners, noted that quail were originally found in states farther north than Pennsylvania.
Gregg explained that there was a time when much larger areas of suitable habitat allowed quail populations to contract into protected areas during severe winters and then gradually repopulate the rest of the landscape during milder winters.
"We're just operating from a different habitat level than we had a few decades ago," he said.
Delaney pressed the issue, "It's a native species to Pennsylvania and I think it should get the extra effort."
Email the author | Follow on Twitter
on April 07, 2014 at 7:41 PM, updated April 07, 2014 at 7:57 PM
The Pennsylvania Game Commission is moving ahead with preliminary moves that could eventually lead to attempts to restore wild bobwhite quail populations to some parts of the state.
And, that's about the most upbeat thing that can be said for the small, covey-loving gamebird, whose once-famous, whistling "bob-white" call ceased to be a familiar sound on the Pennsylvania landscape nearly a generation ago.
Even the man in charge of the effort for the commission – Ian Gregg, supervisor of the commission's Gamebird Section – wasn't sounding all that optimistic when he updated the project status for the board of game commissioners.
"The trends are not good anywhere," he said. "Pretty much everything that the bobwhite exists, both long-term over the last 40 years and short-term over the last five years, the trends are negative."
The small bird has been devastated by habitat loss as small farms, with their fencerows of dense cover, have been swallowed up into larger farms with edge-to-edge cultivation and no fencerows, suburban developments, strip malls and the like.
The National Bobwhite Conservation Initiative, a coalition of federal agencies, researches and state wildlife agencies in the 30 states where quail were once common, described the plight of the quail as a "landscape-scale habitat problem."
It's doubtful that researchers from Penn State will be able to point to many quail left in Pennsylvania in a report they hope to provide in preliminary form later this spring and even more iffy that they will be able to determine that any quail they do find are wild birds rather than pen-raised birds that have been released.
Recent work – revealed since the commission launched its quail effort in a management plan for the species approved by commissioners in October 2011 – has hinted that DNA evidence may not be able to distinguish wild quail from pen-raised birds.
Nevertheless, in an additional push to zero-in on any remaining areas in the state that the commission might develop as the "small, short-term focus areas" that the NBCI foresees as the beginning of restoration efforts, the commission is preparing to survey the small number of hunters who still pursue quail in the state for their thoughts of prime locations.
The commission also plans to survey gamebird propagators across the state to try to get some estimation on how many quail are being raised each year in the state, and if possible where they are being released.
The NBCI sees all of that as preliminary to the real work of restoring quail populations across the eastern U.S. Results from efforts on the small focus areas would eventually be rolled out over larger areas of potential habitat.
And, that's not going to be a short-term effort.
"We're not going to become the (once-quail-rich) Southeast or Texas," cautioned Gregg. "In the 10-year timeframe we're probably not going to see huntable populations in Pennsylvania."
In addition to lack of widespread, suitable habitat, quail also are susceptible to winter weather.
"Any winter with more than 40 inches of snow is hard on quail," Gregg told commissioners, noting that could be another limiting factor across much of the state, other than some areas in southcentral and southeastern Pennsylvania.
However, Commissioner James Jay Delaney Jr., the prime supporter of the quail effort on the board of commissioners, noted that quail were originally found in states farther north than Pennsylvania.
Gregg explained that there was a time when much larger areas of suitable habitat allowed quail populations to contract into protected areas during severe winters and then gradually repopulate the rest of the landscape during milder winters.
"We're just operating from a different habitat level than we had a few decades ago," he said.
Delaney pressed the issue, "It's a native species to Pennsylvania and I think it should get the extra effort."
