Friday, July 18, 2008
DGIF drafts plan to help revive bobwhite quail
Mark Taylor
Mark Taylor's Outdoors column and notebook appears regularly in The Roanoke Times.
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RICHMOND, Va. -- The Department of Game and Inland Fisheries has developed a plan it hopes will help restore northern bobwhite quail populations and revive quail hunting in Virginia.
The ambitious plan, a draft of which Wildlife Division director Bob Ellis presented to the agency's board Tuesday, includes goals of improving quail habitat, forming partnerships with other groups interested in the species and developing special quail habitat focus areas.
The primary goal is to develop funding sources for the project, which would cost about $9 million over five years starting next fiscal year, which begins July 1, 2009.
"The plan means nothing if it's not aggressively implemented," said board member Charles Yates of Cleveland, Va. "And funding is key."
The agency's previous quail action plan, which was implemented in 1996, was mired by funding woes. Only 35 percent of the plan was funded.
"We had some success with that plan," Ellis told the board. "But not as much as we would have liked."
The decline of quail populations and quail hunting has been precipitous in Virginia the past 35 years.
In 1970, 32 percent of licensed hunters in Virginia pursued quail, and those 132,606 quail hunters spent 877,308 days afield. The kill that year was a record 1,549,250.
In 2005, just 4 percent of the state's hunters pursued quail, and those 9,891 quail hunters spent just 55,361 days afield.
Department officials say direct economic impact from quail hunting was $26 million in 1991, but the impact has dropped by an average of $1.7 million annually and is now barely $3 million.
The changing complexion of Virginia's landscape has been a prime contributor to the problems quail face.
The birds are heavily dependent on early successional greenery, which has declined in Virginia as forests have matured and agricultural properties have become intensely managed and manicured.
Some quail proponents believe predators, their populations booming as trapping has declined, have also had an impact.
"Everything preys on quail," said board chairman C.T. Hill of Midlothian. "If you want to have success with quail restoration programs, you have to have predator control."
The draft plan doesn't directly address predator control. Hill said a potential solution could be to connect trappers with landowners.
"I think it's another opportunity for us to connect two groups of sportsmen," Hill said. "A lot of [trappers] are looking for places."
Ellis said one potential source of funding for the plan could be the establishment of a new "habitat stamp," which at $10 could raise more than $3 million annually. The funds could be used for additional projects and to purchase property for hunting and fishing.
Surveys of outdoorsmen have returned lukewarm reception of the habitat stamp concept, with 52 percent of survey respondents supporting the idea and 48 percent opposing the idea.
Hill said he was confident the agency can find funding for the quail plan, the cost of which would be $1,540,100 for the first year.
"In a $50 million budget, we'll work very hard to come up with that," Hill said.
The agency will take public comments on the plan over the next few months, with the board expected to act on the proposal at its October meeting.
