Brand new effort will expand habitat and access across the state
Quail Forever is proud to announce a brand new habitat and access endeavor in Arizona. The Arizona Quail Initiative will expand quail habitat restoration and public access efforts across the state, with a particular focus in southeastern Arizona. The initiative will impact well over 100,000 acres of vital quail habitat, and will help restore a key part of North America’s vast grassland biome.
“Three species of western quail — Gambles’, Mearns’, and Scaled — converge on this landscape, and we aim to maximize the amount of expansive, high quality habitat available to each of them,” said Scott Poppenberger, Quail Forever’s southwest state coordinator. “Effectively ‘raising the floor’ for quail in the southwestern United States.”
North America’s grasslands are one of the most imperiled ecosystems in the world. Nearly 70 percent of the continent’s original grasslands and rangeland are gone — making strategies like the Arizona Quail Initiative all the more important. Through this new enterprise, Quail Forever and its partners will be able to help protect this iconic ecosystem, while simultaneously helping quail thrive in Arizona and creating more public access across the state.
Brush management is the primary goal of the initiative. Through this on-the-ground work, Quail Forever expects to impact over 30,000 acres of habitat. An additional 100,000 acres will be impacted by converting existing wells to solar and expanding water delivery and storage systems to provide year-round water for quail. It will also open 50,000 acres of private and land-locked public land.
The project is made possible by an extensive list of partners, including The Arizona Game and Fish Department, the Bureau of Land Management, the Natural Resources Conservation Service, the Arizona Association of Conservation Districts, the Arizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management, Intermountain West Joint Venture and the United States Forest Service.
For more information about the Arizona Quail Initiative and to make a gift in support of the Arizona Quail Initiative, click here or contact Scott Poppenberger at spoppenberger@quailforever.org.