Forest Service Launching Bobwhite Initiative at
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Land Between the Lakes
he largest inland peninsula in the United States and a historic home for bobwhites will be the setting for one of the newest initiatives to restore wild bobwhite quail and grassland bird habitats in this country.
Land Between The Lakes National Recreation Area in Western Kentucky and Tennessee is joining the efforts of 25 state wildlife agencies, numerous conservation groups, private land owners, and research institutions in the National Bobwhite Conservation Initiative (NBCI) to achieve widespread restoration of native grassland habitats and restore plummeting wild quail populations. “We want to bring bobwhites and other declining species of grassland birds back to their native lands.” That, in a nutshell, is how U. S. Forest Service Acting Area Manager Pat Fowler describes what’s behind the new quail initiative at the agency’s 170,000-acre peninsula between Kentucky and Barkely Lakes. “Overall, grassland birds, including quail, are in trouble, more so than any other suite of birds,” states Fowler. “These birds require tall grasses to hide their nests from predators in order to survive. Old timers in the region often talk about how the landscape used to be covered with quail and wonder when we are going to bring them back.”
Land Between The Lakes identified multiple 15,000-acre tracts as possible sites. To choose its first bobwhite focal area, Fowler and his staff are working locally with the Central Hardwoods Joint Venture, Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources, the National Wild Turkey Federation, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, and the National Bobwhite Conservation Initiative. Since adopting its 2004 Area Plan, the national recreation area has been working toward habitat
LBL National Recreation Area
18 • NBCI’s Bobwhite Almanac