Southeast Kansas Quail Project
Emphasis on Habitat

by Robert Culbertson, Biologist
Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks (KDWP)
Emporia, Kansas

A relatively new program designed to improve quail habitat in Allen, Bourbon, Crawford, and Neosho counties is providing incentive payments to landowners who plan and carry out qualifying practices. During the first year of this project, 11 landowners have completed projects and received $11,500 in payments. The Southeast Kansas Quail Working Group (SEK QWG), in cooperation with the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks (KDWP), is again offering up to $2,000 annually per cooperator as cost-share or incentive payments for practices creating and improving quail habitat.

The SEK QWG was established in February 2000 to address low bobwhite quail populations in southeast Kansas. Private landowners, Kansas Farm Bureau, Natural Resources Conservation Service, SeeKan Resource Conservation and Development, Pittsburg State University, Kansas State University Extension Service, Quail Unlimited, and the KDWP have partnered to get this program up and running in the last 18 months. The group identified several land-use practices that have impacted quail populations and established a list of enhancements that will benefit quail. Projects eligible for payment include replacing fescue, establishing native grass, renovating hedgerows, strip discing, early burning of native grasses, establishing food plots or leaving grain unharvested, planting shrubs, excluding livestock from borders and odd areas, and using conservation headlands (a narrow field perimeter area left uncultivated and free of pesticides).

In addition to the four-county project site, a demonstration area in southwest Bourbon County has been identified where more intense habitat improvements and research will take place. Several landowners in the area have agreed to participate in this demonstration area. The SEK QWG hopes to develop additional habitat in this area and actually monitor changes in the quail population as the habitat evolves. Kansas State University Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit is leading this research charge. The group is still seeking cooperating landowners in the Porterville vicinity interested in this effort.

Approximately $125,000 is available for the Quail Initiative through June 30, 2002. Primary funding comes from a KDWP project dedicated to this effort. These funds are supplemented by a challenge grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, donations from local and statewide Quail Unlimited chapters, and landowner contributions of labor and planting materials.

Habitat improvements must be designated in a written plan approved by KDWP to be eligible for payment. Interested landowners can contact the KDWP Regional Office in Chanute at 620-431-0380 for information concerning plan development. Natural Resources Conservation Service field offices in the targeted counties are also sources of information concerning the program.

For more information about NRCS programs, visit the Kansas NRCS web site at www.ks.nrcs.usda.gov.

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Last Modified: 09/09/2008