|  07/26/2018

Summer Quail Report: Arkansas


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By Chad Love - Editor, Quail Forever
 

Weather

"It is looking like a pretty normal year so far with precipitation and temperatures, so I think the hatch will be unhindered by those factors, so given good habitat it will be a good year for production,” says Marcus Asher, quail program coordinator for the state of Arkansas.
 

Habitat

“We have a fair amount of habitat in the Ouachitas, Arkansas River Valley, and Ozarks, where pastures are not meticulously managed for cattle production,” Asher says. “Habitat is very lacking in the closed canopy pines of the Gulf Coastal plains with the exception of newly-created clearcuts. The Delta has very limited habitat as well, but CRP and young tree plantings associated with WRP tracts hold some decent numbers of birds where significant amounts of this habitat occur.” 
 

Programs

“The Working Lands for Wildlife and CSP are supplying good amounts of money to fund habitat projects in concentrated areas,” says Asher. “We are in the process of providing an additional $600,000 to landowners in North Arkansas to specifically target implementation of quail habitat through an RCPP.”
 

Prospects

“This is just a slightly educated guess, but numbers will be similar to last year, which seemed to be up,” says Asher.