STRENGTHS AND LIMITATIONS

Man’s got to know his limitations...

--Clint Eastwood, Magnum Force, 1973

The eastern states’ wild bobwhites have been declining for years, while the western states were riding high. No longer; now we’re all suffering together.

The current ebb in western wild quail populations serves a purpose by raising the public profile of the plight of bobwhites, not just in Texas and Oklahoma, but across the country. Widespread attention to the overall bobwhite problem is long overdue, but the acute concerns about western quail are shining a brighter light on questions about what, if anything, to do differently.

At a recent wildlife convention, a flyer for a seminar entitled “Extreme White-tail Management” caught my attention. Even as I pondered the state of contemporary deer management, I began to wonder if the same concept might – or already does – apply to bobwhites. Such thinking has helped me better frame and clarify the NBCI’s national leadership role in bobwhite conservation, including the current western quail situation.

Please allow me to provide brief context for bobwhite conservation and the NBCI. The state fish and wildlife agencies have the legal authority and stewardship responsibility for wild quail in their respective states. This authority is grounded in the Public Trust Doctrine of wildlife management in North America, which holds that wildlife resources are owned by no one, but are held in trust by government for the benefit of present and future generations of the people.  The details of implementation differ among states, but the core theme is the same.

From that doctrine arises the “North American Model of Wildlife Conservation” and its seven primary tenets:

• Wildlife as Public Trust Resources
• Elimination of Markets for Game
• Allocation of Wildlife by Law
• Wildlife Should Only be Killed for a Legitimate Purpose
• Wildlife Are Considered an International Resource
• Science is the Proper Tool for Discharge of Wildlife Policy
• Democracy of Hunting (i.e. hunting opportunity for all)

The NBCI is the 25-state, unified strategic initiative for wild quail restoration, the first-ever collective effort by states to tackle such a large regional challenge for a resident game bird. As an initiative originating from the states, the NBCI is solidly grounded in state authorities – and limitations – as well as the North American Model that generally guides states’ wildlife conservation philosophy and actions. For example, the NBCI vision is to restore wild quail at a landscape scale across its range, so it is once again an abundant public resource (tenet 1) that is widely available (tenet 7) for regulated public hunting (tenet 4).

Further, the NBCI is built on a foundation of science (tenet 6) which, fortunately, is exceptionally broad and deep for bobwhites. The scientific consensus is that – summarized across the species’ range – landscape-scale habitat degradation over decades is the root of the long-term population decline. Thus, the NBCI is designed and geared to address the range-wide bobwhite problem at its source – by instigating large-scale, strategic habitat restoration on croplands, grazing lands, forest lands, mining lands, etc. Habitat restoration is long-term, tedious and frustrating work, constrained by scale, economics, land ownership patterns, and perpetually inadequate budgets and personnel. If and when the scientific consensus changes regarding the big picture of bobwhite ecology and limiting factors, the NBCI will adapt and evolve appropriately.

The NBCI’s state-based authority and structure are sources of the Initiative’s strengths, as well as its limitations. The core strength of the NBCI’s 25-state alliance and partnerships is the potential power of so many conservation allies to eventually catalyze range-wide positive impacts. No other approach has such large potential. The basic limitation of the NBCI’s state foundation is that state wildlife agencies, like every bureaucracy in the history of the world, can be cumbersome and conservative entities that understandably may try the patience of those seeking immediate and bold action. State agencies must answer to diverse publics with diverse interests, and generally must operate within political, professional and scientific conservation standards that consider societal tolerances and multiple resource needs.

Some private entrepreneurs who love bobwhite hunting are eager to do more, faster. Who among us cannot appreciate that desire?  With fewer financial, legal, political, societal or geographic scale constraints than the states and the NBCI, substantial private money is being invested in bobwhite research, management practices and propagation that stretch the limits of traditional public trust-based conservation norms. In the process, new scientific knowledge about bobwhite biology certainly will be acquired.

The NBCI supports scientific inquiry, and values new scientific knowledge about bobwhites. Some of the privately funded research underway may illuminate non-habitat factors that could limit certain populations in certain places, and perhaps could even offer innovative means to increase bobwhite populations on a limited scale.

But just because we may find out we can, does not necessarily mean the states and the NBCI should ... or even could. Some of the measures (e.g. predator control, supplemental feeding, etc.) that are being or may be employed by private conservationists to increase local bobwhite populations may not be appropriate or feasible for states or the NBCI at statewide or regional scales.  Various important factors such as tenets of the North American Model, states’ financial constraints, logistical barriers such as landscape scales, competing resource demands, societal and political tolerance, conservation partnership implications, risks of unintended consequences, etc. affect the conservation policy decisions of public agencies.

The NBCI is following the science and keeping our eye on the ball at the horizon – staying focused on habitat degradation as the fundamental root cause of the range-wide bobwhite problem. As slow and frustrating as it is to address that reality, the NBCI’s role for the foreseeable future is to provide national leadership, coordination and capacity to catalyze large-scale, strategic restoration of native habitats as the long-term means to restore widespread populations.

In November, I lamented a fundamental bobwhite conservation problem – most quail hunters just go away quietly, rather than stand up and work to restore their resource, their sport and their tradition.  I was not writing about Kim Price.  Kim did not, would not go away.  He tenaciously applied his skills and every means available to him to aid quail conservation until the very end.  He just succumbed to cancer at the age of 57.

Kim was a professional communicator and newspaper man, and a passionate quail hunter.  His current primary day job was as president and publisher of The Wetumpka (AL) Herald newspaper.

When the “Northern Bobwhite Conservation Initiative” (NBCI) was published by the former Southeast Quail Study Group (SEQSG) in March 2002, Kim and his brother, Tim, perceived an opportunity and an urgent need to reach new audiences with information about quail traditions, conservation and the NBCI.  On their own initiative, and at their own risk, the Price brothers promptly created a new monthly magazine devoted to bobwhite hunting and conservation, “Covey Rise,” which is celebrating its 10^th anniversary with a circulation of more than 10,000.

Kim wanted to do more than just entertain quail hunters; he wanted to apply his communications skills to help the NBCI cause.  From the start, he took a professional newsman’s approach to the new magazine by seriously engaging and offering his services to the SEQSG (now the National Bobwhite Technical Committee, NBTC).  He actively participated in annual meetings of the NBTC and its Outreach Subcommittee, and solicited and readily published perspectives, management information and research findings from wildlife professionals all across the bobwhite range.  The Prices added real value to the NBCI by connecting more professional quail conservationists with more quail hunters, helping grow the conservation movement.

The NBCI conservatively estimates more than 357,000 people still hunt bobwhites (“State of the Bobwhite” report).  The potential power of so many passionate people with a presumably wide array of skills and assets could change the game for quail conservation.  But that potential power will not become actual power unless many of those people follow Kim Price’s leadership and personal example.  The NBCI provides a vision and a united strategy; but it needs the actual power of quail hunters like Kim and Tim Price to succeed.

Ironically, Kim’s last editorial – published October 2011 – highlighted concerns about quail mortality, while confronting his own.  The bobwhite quail community has lost a leader, an ally and a friend.  The world needs more Kim Prices.  Our condolences to Tim and the rest of Kim’s family.

I used to enjoy those various thought-provoking generational lists that annually make the rounds on email circuits and the Internet, lists of things or concepts that younger generations have never seen and can’t fully understand … like broken records, camera film, film negatives, and rotary-dial phones.  But that was before it became personal.

The shot across the bow (another concept becoming obsolete!) was the hunter education classes taught by NBCI Forestry Coordinator Mike Black.  He lamented late this summer that only a couple kids out of several dozen even knew what bobwhite quail were.  Most of the dads who were present knew, but not their kids.  I remember shaking our heads and pondering the grim state of things.  But still the reality didn’t sink in fully.

The sobering reality finally hit home last night.  My wife, Sheryl, came home after a frustrating day in her middle-school science lab.  She was struggling to convey some basic concepts of light, such as transmission and scattering.  Grasping for an obvious metaphor to illustrate what happens to light particles going through a translucent medium, she seized on a flushing covey of quail that scatters in all directions, rather than flying together in one direction.

The blank stares were followed quickly by a question from the students’ homeroom teacher, “What are quail?”  Neither the teacher nor any student in the class knew what a quail is.  Sheryl had to get out her field guide to show a picture, but by then her point was meaningless.

Kids today don’t have a clue what they are missing.  How can people miss what they have never known?  Who will strive to restore something they don’t miss?  The weight of bobwhite restoration seems to be falling on those of us with gray in our hair.

--A frustrated New Jersey quail hunter/conservationist

"If quail hunters made as much noise as bear hunters, this agency would be doing more for quail."

--A southeastern wildlife agency administrator, September 2011

Which comes first – quail hunter action or agency action?  I hear both sides, almost every day.  The “State of the Bobwhite” report, released in October by the NBCI (www.bringbackbobwhites.org), illuminated that much more needs to be done simultaneously at federal, state and local levels to address the bleak state of grassland bird conservation.  But whose move is it?

Quail hunters often contend that if wildlife agencies would do more to restore quail, increased hunter numbers and public support would follow.  Conversely, a common refrain from agency commissioners and administrators is there aren’t enough quail hunters to warrant so much attention and resources; and those that are left don’t speak up.  In other words, deer pay the bills and bear hunters speak up, but quail hunters do neither.

Both views have some merit, but neither helps move us forward.

Here’s where we stand:  the states and the quail technical experts already have taken the first big leadership steps – developing the NBCI, and providing the initial push with their quail organization partners to get it going.  Momentum is building, but not big enough or fast enough.  Now it’s time for legions of individual quail hunters to add their collective weight to the movement.

Wildlife agency commissioners, board members and administrators are human, and respond to squeaky wheels.  I used to be a mid-level administrator for a southeastern state wildlife agency, and saw firsthand how readily deer hunters will storm the castle to try to get their way, while quail hunters are silent and invisible.  Deer hunters make things happen.  Quail hunters could learn lessons from them.

To those quail hunters and enthusiasts who already are actively engaged in and supportive of grassland habitat conservation, “Thank you!”  Your continuing support and engagement is crucial.  To the majority who care but are not yet active, now is the time; no more excuses.  We cannot do it without you.

If throngs of quail hunters in all 25 NBCI states began making noise worthy of the urgency of the problem, agencies would begin to notice and respond.  Respectful prodding may be needed in some places, especially at first.  But over the longer term, quail hunters need to engage their state wildlife agency and commission with positive reinforcement – constructive interaction that is supportive of the agency’s efforts.

The NBCI Management Board, itself—comprised largely of state wildlife agency administrators—challenged quail enthusiasts to get active, to help grow this movement.  Some specific actions that individual quail hunters can and need to take that add value are:

1.         Join one or more organizations that work for quail habitat conservation;

- Every single person who cares about quail has a stewardship responsibility to join;

- Provide local leadership and manpower to help implement quail focal areas.

2.         Contact your state agency quail coordinator (www.bringbackbobwhites.org) ;

- Find out what is already going on for quail in your state;

- Ask if the NBCI 2.0 has been stepped down and tailored to your state;

- Offer help, such as with habitat conservation or bird counts on focal areas.

3.         Attend and speak up at commission or board meetings of your state wildlife agency;

- Promote the NBCI and its habitat restoration goals;

- Be positive, supportive and appreciative of ongoing quail work;

- Ask for high priority and more resources for quail;

- Be persistent.

The human core of quail conservation is why I contend ad nauseam that bobwhite restoration is about “people, politics and money.”  Quail hunters who "go away" will not win political support.  Quail hunters who "go away" will not influence agency policies and spending.  Quail hunters who "go away" will not foster positive change.  The NBCI needs all quail hunters and enthusiasts to get actively engaged, the sooner the better.