A Quail of a Cause
Phil Taunton
Friday, February 23, 2007
Excitement was in the air at the much-anticipated grand opening of the new Bass Pro Shop in Olathe on Wednesday night.
Will Shields, Jordan Black and several other Kansas City Chiefs football players and cheerleaders were on hand to sign autographs, as were fishing legends Jimmy Houston, Gary Parsons and Mr. Crappie, Wally Marshall.
I was as excited as a kid in a candy store could get!
An “Evening for Conservation” also was a part of this special kickoff event. And I was privileged to help man one of the conservation booths.
Conservation organizations such as the National Wild Turkey Federation, Ducks Unlimited, the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation and Quail Unlimited all play a vital role in wildlife management and ensuring the future of hunting and the shooting sports.
Besides supporting conservation efforts, they raise funds for both local hunter education activities, 4-H and other youth programs. Their members volunteer time and labor, provide advice, and perhaps most important, inspire outdoor-loving people to become actively involved in the future of all wildlife.
Gentleman Bob White has had a tough time this year. The drought last summer and the ice and freezing weather of late never helped his cause much.
Most of the Kansas hunters I talked to Wednesday confessed they had a fair upland game bird season with more pheasants being found than quail. What alarmed me most was that hunters just across the state line in Nebraska thought numbers of quail found were down by as much as 40 percent, and other reports have numbers down as much as 75 to 90 percent throughout Texas and Oklahoma.
The Emporia Area Chapter of Quail Unlimited will be having its 2007 Wildlife Conservation Banquet on March 6 at the Anderson Building at the Lyon County Fairgrounds. Doors will open at 5:30 p.m., and a beef steak dinner with all the trimmings will be served at 7 p.m. For more information, call Ron Whitney at 343-3247.
I will be there and would value your input concerning Bob’s plight.
Quail Unlimited is a non-profit conservation organization dedicated to the wise management and conservation of America’s wild quail. Their efforts to battle the problem of dwindling quail and wildlife habitat were first started in 1981.
Hope to see you at the banquet.
News from the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks
Quail Unlimited (QU) and Budweiser recently announced that they will continue to sponsor the Adopt-A-Covey Program introduced last year.
In its inaugural year, almost 300 landowners participated, enrolling more than 100,000 acres in projects to enhance habitat for quail and other upland species. Each landowner submitted an enrollment form that was reviewed by a panel of judges, primarily state wildlife and QU biologists.
The quality of the management practices, not acreage, determined which submissions were enrolled.
“One of the greatest benefits of the program was that completing enrollment forms caused landowners to do a self-evaluation of their properties,” said Roger Wells of Americus, who is the national habitat director for Quail Unlimited. “This created an increased awareness of habitat needs and provided the initiative to do even more habitat work.”
Each landowner who submits an enrollment form receives an attractive metal gate sign showing that they are good land stewards who practice sound wildlife management. They also receive a wildlife management handbook detailing practices that are beneficial to quail and other upland species.
Last year’s Adopt-A-Covey National Award Winner was landowner Jeff Churan from Avalon, Mo. He and his family actively manage a 320-acre farm for quail and other wildlife species. Unbeknownst to the Adopt-A-Covey judges, Churan also had been awarded the Budweiser Outdoorsman of the Year award for conservation efforts in 1997.
For more information on the Adopt-A-Covey program or to download an enrollment form, visit the Quail Unlimited website, www.qu.org. The 2007 application deadline is May 31.