PEA RIDGE -- Bobwhites once filled fields in the south, but their numbers have dropped. A new partnership and plan at Pea Ridge National Military Park aim to boost their numbers.
Ten years ago, people might have seen a bobwhite or two on the park land, said Kevin Eads, park superintendent. In recent years, park managers have seen an increase, Eads said.
A new vegetation plan meant to return the battlefield land to a state closer to what it was during the battle could further help the bobwhite population. The plan calls for about two-thirds of the park's fields to be converted to native grasses, Eads said.
"Those native grasses will look similar to some of the crops that would have been there," Eads said.
Research for the new vegetation plan started in 2012, and park staff members took their landscape cues from 1836 and 1837 survey records.
The plan calls for thinning the forests and removing invasive species such as cedar trees, which will be cut and reused in fences around the battlefield or for mulch.
The plan set the stage for a partnership of the park, the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission and the National Bobwhite Conservation Initiative.
Bobwhite hunting used to be a pastime on par with eating fried catfish or barbecue or watching Southeastern Conference football, said Don McKenzie, National Bobwhite Conservation Initiative director.
The tradition "slipped away on our generation's watch," he said.
But at the same time, farming practices and residential development replaced habitat where bobwhites once thrived.
The bobwhite has been on the decline since records were started in 1966, McKenzie said.
Bobwhites prefer rough, uncleared areas where they can live under tall grass. Cattle can thrive on native prairie grasses, but fields are often planted in fescue, McKenzie said.
Warm-season grasses, such as prairie grasses, grow in a clump, said Kurtis Cecil, a life science faculty member at Northwest Arkansas Community College in Bentonville. Fescue is a sod grass that is tightly compacted, so letting it grow tall doesn't help prairie birds.
"They can't even get through it," said Cecil, who is also an associate member of the National Bobwhite Technical Committee and a member of other groups supporting quail.
It's not just bobwhites that lost habitat, Cecil said. Half the eastern grassland species of birds are in decline.
Among them are greater prairie chickens, Henslow's sparrows, dickcissels, Eastern meadowlarks, loggerhead shrikes, Bachman's sparrows, indigo buntings, Eastern towhees, prairie warblers and field sparrows, he said.
Cecil has loved the bobwhite since he flushed his first bird at age 5. The birds are comical to watch as they run around with babies the size of a thumb tip, he said.
The bird's calls include the spring "bobwhite"-sounding whistle where the male calls his mate and a less known fall covey call.
Repopulating deer and wild turkey was easy compared to the bobwhite, McKenzie said. The habitat was in place for the deer; only the animals had to be moved. Not so with the bobwhite.
"We have to change the habitat," he said.
Pea Ridge is the laboratory that will prove proper habitat also sustains quail, said Clifton Jackson, small game program coordinator and quail biologist with Arkansas Game and Fish Commission.
He also sees opportunity for landowners near the park.
"People who do quail-friendly things will have birds," he said.
Converting even 5 percent of land to warm-season grass such as big bluestem, little bluestem or gamma grass will help.
The name of the grass doesn't matter as much as the structure, Jackson said. Quail can tunnel along in prairie grass, whereas short patches with thatch on the ground won't benefit them.
"Quail can't go to Home Depot and get a bale of hay if it's just one golf course-looking lawn out there," he said.
Pea Ridge manages park land with prescribed fire. Other landowners can do the same, and the state will help them create a safe burn plan.
"Historical records indicate that everything in Arkansas burned," Jackson said.
A fire in the cool of March that burns low across the ground in minutes and is followed by spring rains helps stave off the encroaching cedar and pines. It cleans up leaf litter on the ground and can reduce the chance of summer wildfire.
Arkansas Game and Fish will help count the birds and monitor habitat at Pea Ridge. The National Bobwhite Conservation Initiative will provide educational resources and is also interested in tracking the birds, McKenzie said.
Bobwhites are at the bottom of the food chain, but they out-reproduce their predators, McKenzie said.
He estimates the population will be restored when it reaches half a bird per acre of park land, or about 180 coveys.
"That may be a little ambitious, but it's not unreasonable," he said.
Metro on 03/15/2015