New Jersey bringing back wild quail

CRC

Old Mossy Horns
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2017/09/new_jersey_quail_restoration_national_award.html

CHATSWORTH -- Before June 6, 2015, bobwhite quail nests had not been spotted in New Jersey since the 1980s. The birds had essentially disappeared from the Pine Barrens, for reasons generally unknown. All signs, however, point to habitat loss.

New Jersey Audubon has been reintroducing bobwhite quail on Bill Haines' Pine Island cranberry farm in Chatsworth since April 2015. Just months after the first release of birds, originally trapped in Georgia, the nests were found.
 

sky hawk

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
They're a little late to that party. Good luck.

I would like for some state to succeed though and teach the rest of them how to do it.
 

Colekira

Ten Pointer
Contributor
They're a little late to that party. Good luck.

I would like for some state to succeed though and teach the rest of them how to do it.
The fox and coyote population in NJ is out of control. Until they have an open season, no sense in trying to reintroduce quail or pheasant.
 

JONOV

Old Mossy Horns
Someone on this board pointed out to me on this board that there are plenty of hawks in the Dakota, Kansas, etc, and they have birds.

I was listening the the Hunting Dog Podcast and he was interviewing someone with a quail restoration group. He said two things that really seemed to get to the core of the issue. The first was making sure there are 1500 contiguous acres of habitat.

The second thing, and I think this is worth talking about more, is that the fescue type grasses planted everywhere are about the worst thing for them. Quail chicks need sparser at ground level cover to dodge and dart around and look for insects. The reason that it struck a chord was that I was driving through rural central NC, down a country road, and all I saw in DITCHES, pastures, hayfields, was fescue grass, no different than a football field.

I hear so many people on this board and elsewhere say "the habitat hasn't changed, don't know what it could be." But I wonder if the changes are small and difficult enough to notice, like the grass being different, but a fatal blow to quail reproduction.

I know in MN there were areas we would pheasant hunt and one year it would suddenly be really bad...Reason was that Farmer Brown had hayed the (public) road ditches up and down 5 miles of gravel roads since Corn prices were really high and he could sell the corn he normally chopped into silage to feed the dairy herd and didn't want to pay for hay.
 
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lasttombstone

Kinder, Gentler LTS
A couple of years ago I noticed a pair of quail around a field edge on my farm. After talking with the area biologist he said that the best thing I could do was get rid of the fescue. Since then I have cut areas of trees from around the field edge and sprayed to kill everything that was left in there. Last year I was able to disk some and begin working on the stumps that were left. I continued to spray and disk as I could until this spring when I planted a wildlife seed mix from Southern States. I made sure that the farmer who tends the fields did not spray further that where he was normally planting and I have 3 very nice areas of millet, buckwheat and Australian peas. I have since seen 2 nice coveys of quail with over 15 birds each. I plan to continue moving the edges of the fields back where possible and getting rid of all the fescue I can.
 

JONOV

Old Mossy Horns
A couple of years ago I noticed a pair of quail around a field edge on my farm. After talking with the area biologist he said that the best thing I could do was get rid of the fescue. Since then I have cut areas of trees from around the field edge and sprayed to kill everything that was left in there. Last year I was able to disk some and begin working on the stumps that were left. I continued to spray and disk as I could until this spring when I planted a wildlife seed mix from Southern States. I made sure that the farmer who tends the fields did not spray further that where he was normally planting and I have 3 very nice areas of millet, buckwheat and Australian peas. I have since seen 2 nice coveys of quail with over 15 birds each. I plan to continue moving the edges of the fields back where possible and getting rid of all the fescue I can.

Very Nice! I've noticed that if you walk around CURE areas even in "thick" stuff, if you look down you can see dirt, not grass...
 

para4514

Eight Pointer
Contributor
A couple of years ago I noticed a pair of quail around a field edge on my farm. After talking with the area biologist he said that the best thing I could do was get rid of the fescue. Since then I have cut areas of trees from around the field edge and sprayed to kill everything that was left in there. Last year I was able to disk some and begin working on the stumps that were left. I continued to spray and disk as I could until this spring when I planted a wildlife seed mix from Southern States. I made sure that the farmer who tends the fields did not spray further that where he was normally planting and I have 3 very nice areas of millet, buckwheat and Australian peas. I have since seen 2 nice coveys of quail with over 15 birds each. I plan to continue moving the edges of the fields back where possible and getting rid of all the fescue I can.

Good information and great work! Also don't overlook the importance of briers and 2-5 year old woody vegetation that provides winter cover.
 

lasttombstone

Kinder, Gentler LTS
^I left about 15 feet or so behind the planted area back to the woodline and plan on bush hogging it on about a 3 year rotation in the early spring, enough to keep the saplings from getting too big. I hope to continue to put in more edge next spring. I have never hunted quail but have always enjoyed seeing them.
 

sky hawk

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
The good thing about fescue is when you spray it, it dies, and it doesn't come back. Not here at least. All of the other weeds jump up, and that's the end of it.
 
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nccatfisher

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
Fescue is gone when you spray it. Ceresa is a good plant in moderation for quail also as long as you bush hog it occasionally. It also provides forage and harborage for other game as well. Unkept it can be a pest though.
 

para4514

Eight Pointer
Contributor
Sericea is not much benefit for quail habitat. Low nutritional value, spreads aggressively, suppresses native plant and can remain viable in the seed bank for 20 years, all these characteristics contradict the benefits historically advertised. But if I was looking to be successful getting something green established it would be at the top of my list.
 

sky hawk

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
Managing habitat for quail goes against the sensibilities of our entire society. Even most farmers and hunters want their fields to look clean, and mowed around. They want good, thick fescue in their pastures and hay fields, and they want their fencerows clean. Efficient farming gets right to the edges of fields, and they take out any old hedgerows or fencerows that would make their tractor have to turn. Short of a major societal shift (like the Industrial revolution), I'm not sure we're ever gonna get quail back.

A few years ago, while an an Indiana hunt, I was talking with a man who owned a Case IH dealership for 45 years until just recently. The changes he described in the farming equipment, and thus farming practices over that time period, were enlightening.
 

para4514

Eight Pointer
Contributor
Managing habitat for quail goes against the sensibilities of our entire society. Even most farmers and hunters want their fields to look clean, and mowed around. They want good, thick fescue in their pastures and hay fields, and they want their fencerows clean. Efficient farming gets right to the edges of fields, and they take out any old hedgerows or fencerows that would make their tractor have to turn. Short of a major societal shift (like the Industrial revolution), I'm not sure we're ever gonna get quail back.

A few years ago, while an an Indiana hunt, I was talking with a man who owned a Case IH dealership for 45 years until just recently. The changes he described in the farming equipment, and thus farming practices over that time period, were enlightening.

Yep, but don't have to venture to the mid-west to hear the same stories, Sky Hawk. A good friend of mine who is in mid-sixties recollects a local earth moving company buying a brand new Cat bulldozer when he was in his teens. He recalls that the Cat was delivered to a local farm when brand new then spent the next several years walking from farm to farm clearing hedgerows, making little fields into big fields. This was right up the road from you between Millingport and Richfield. I sure similar stories could be told for much of our state.

Lots of societal factors have changed in the last 50 years. Lots more mouths to feed and ag. markets are more globally driven than ever before. Cost of owning land has skyrocketed as property tax rates and property valuations have increased. More people need more services, and it seems that our "wants" have changed a great deal as well.

While quail habitat has suffered would we rather have food shortage, higher food costs or more regulations of private property rights? Glad there are folks out there like Lasttombstone who see the value of these critters and by choice (not mandate or legislation) are willing to give up some ag. and forestry income to help them out.
 

lasttombstone

Kinder, Gentler LTS
^I'm old and maybe more mature these days. I chose to buy land some years ago as oppose to other personal wants and am now able to live on what I have coming in. I love my trees and wouldn't sell them for any price and my fields are not leased, rather given to a local farmer for his use as long as he keeps things like I want them. As I see it, property owners could do more for habitat enhancement if they were willing to give up a little of the mighty dollar but in this world, that usually doesn't happen. I know there is a lot of farm land that is leased rather than owned so it is really up to the landowner what happens with the land. They can still make a difference.
 

sky hawk

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
Unfortunately the only way to achieve habitat goals on a wide scale is to make it economically profitable, which it isn’t. Even with government programs in places it’s not enough.
 

sky hawk

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
I think the only realistic route is to cut massive amounts of timber on our public lands, and then use the profits to establish beneficial cover and maintain early successional habitat.

That could work, but I don’t see it ever happening. Not on the scale it needs to.
 

lasttombstone

Kinder, Gentler LTS
And I have to believe that, even if the money was there to compensate the landowner, most of them would not take it but rather opt for the "nice, clean look" .
 

sky hawk

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
I agree. And I understand it too. You really have to buy into the scraggly look, and for that to happen, you have to value the wildlife benefits over aesthetics.
 

JONOV

Old Mossy Horns
I think the only realistic route is to cut massive amounts of timber on our public lands, and then use the profits to establish beneficial cover and maintain early successional habitat.

That could work, but I don’t see it ever happening. Not on the scale it needs to.

Heck, we could have good Grouse hunting if we did that in the mountains. Actually the best grouse land in the country is dominated by...the Weyerhausers of the world. Counties that allow it to get logged, etc...But logging 800 acres/year of the Pisgah National Forest isn't going to cut it. Hit Print twice, kill a tree, make Grouse habitat.

I know that changes the subject a little bit but if they would turn the timber companies loose on even 5% of that land a year we would see far better Grouse hunting.
 
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sky hawk

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
If the people in charge of Pisgah and Nantahala would make early successional cover a priority, and got aggressive with it, we might could make some headway, but there's just too many people against it. Of all of the habitat changes though, that one pays for itself several times over. If they would cut and reinvest the money into wildlife, they could really do some good, but they just give it lip service instead.
 

JONOV

Old Mossy Horns
If the people in charge of Pisgah and Nantahala would make early successional cover a priority, and got aggressive with it, we might could make some headway, but there's just too many people against it. Of all of the habitat changes though, that one pays for itself several times over. If they would cut and reinvest the money into wildlife, they could really do some good, but they just give it lip service instead.
Maybe they need a fire that makes the ones they had last year look like a BBQ...Because their hands off approach will eventually lead to that I think...
 
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