The Emporia Gazette

May 27, 2012

• Headlines
• Sports
• Forums
• Weather
• Classifieds

• Help
• Log in
• Home

• E-mail story
• Post a comment
• iPod friendly version

Where, oh where, have all the quail gone? Where, oh where, can they be?

A recent Audubon Society survey showed the number of Northern Bobwhite quail have declined by as much as 82 percent since 1967.

Other grassland birds also have shown a distressing decline during the same time frame: Eastern Meadowlarks, our state bird, a 72-percent decline; Loggerhead Shrikes or Butcher birds, 71 percent; field sparrows, 68 percent.

And the “flagship species of the grassland birds,” the greater prairie chicken, whose flocks numbered in the hundreds and gave Cassoday its nickname “The Prairie Chicken Capital of the World” are no longer found in such magnitudes.

Why the decline? Hunters’ harvesting the birds isn’t the reason. Meadowlarks, Shrikes and all species of sparrows except the English sparrow are protected songbirds.

Hoping to find out some answers to this decline, I attended the Habitat Techniques Demonstration Day (HTDD) held last Wednesday at Hillsdale Wildlife Area, Hillsdale Lake near Paola, on U.S. Army Corps of Engineers property that is managed by the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks.

Quail Unlimited (QU), in cooperation with KDWP personnel, put on a most informative seminar. Landowners and the general public were invited to learn hands-on habitat improvement techniques.

Loss of habitat in the form of urban sprawl, changing farming practices and succession have all played a role in the decline of our grassland birds, not just quail.

At station six, I learned there was a Wildlife Habitat Appraisal Guide at www.qu.org/evaluation that helps landowners assess their own land and see what improvements need to be made.

Trees and forest are not friends of the grassland birds, and several demonstrations were given on how to remove unwanted species.  Demonstrations were given in the simple and safe use of a chainsaw, to removing bigger trees and red cedars quickly and efficiently by using larger equipment such as the Marshall Tree Saw.

Habitat improvement also can be as simple as creating living brush piles by half cutting trees, falling them over to create a canopy effect and giving the birds protection from storms and avian predators. Disturbing the ground with light disking and letting weeds and other desirable plants and shrubs grow also can be beneficial.

Throughout the day, I visited with Clint Bowman, a new KDWP habitat and wildlife manager at Melvern Wildlife Area. Clint also stressed that Mother Nature will play a role in how successful we are in bringing back these birds. As far as quail and turkey are concerned, we will just need to wait and see how the rains and floods of early July affected the nesting and brooding success of the Wildlife Area gamebirds.

This year's annual Quail Unlimited National convention in now in progress in Overland Park and will run through Sunday. A visit to the Convention would be worth your while, especially if you are concerned with the decline of the Northern Bobwhite, Prince of the Gamebirds.

Proposed new rule would affect hunters, shooting sports

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has proposed a new rule that would classify ammunition, powder and primers as explosives.

These rules would effectively change how ammunition and handloading components could be stored, sold and transported.

The proposed rule change would make it illegal for sporting good stores to sell firearms and ammunition in the same building. It would require evacuation of all facilities, including sporting good stores, containing ammunition in the event of a lightning storm and prohibit delivery drivers from leaving ammunition unattended. This rule would virtually eliminate all mail-order ammunition sales.

OSHA’S rule change could affect the ability of hunters and shooters to purchase ammunition, and critically hurt ammunition manufacturers by implanting unneeded regulations, which could limit ammunition production and raise prices.

You could help make a difference. The time limit concerning public comment on OSHA Docket Number OSHA-2007-0032 was recently expanded through Sept.10. Let OSHA know how this rule change is unnecessary and would affect law-abiding gun owners’ accessibility to ammunition by mailing or faxing a comment by Sept. 10.

Please submit your comments regarding this proposed rule change that would classify ammunition, powder and primers as explosives by fax at (202) 693-1648, or by mail: OSHA Docket Office, Docket No. OSHA-2007-0032, U.S. Department of Labor, Room N-2625, 200 Constitution Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20210.

With your help, perhaps fellow hunters and the shooting sports community will defeat this attack on America’s hunting tradition.