Source: NC NRCS, 3/20/17

Applications are being accepted for the 2017 Environmental Quality
Incentives Program (EQIP) Working Lands for Wildlife (WLFW)-Target Species:
Northern Bobwhite Quail (Colinus virginianus).

Landowners interested in this initiative are encouraged to submit applications by April 21, 2017, at their local NRCS field office.

Through WLFW, NRCS works with partners and private landowners to focus voluntary conservation on working landscapes. NRCS provides technical and financial assistance to agricultural producers, helping them plan and implement conservation practices that benefit target species and priority landscapes.

The northern bobwhite is often referred to as an “edge” species, seeking habitat where crop fields intersect with woodlands, pastures and old fields. Historically, land use favored bobwhite, but changes in land use and how lands are managed have caused the bird’s numbers to dip by more than 80 percent over the last 60 years.

Bobwhites depend on early successional habitat grasslands, shrubby areas, and pine or oak savannahs found across the East. These habitats have the forbs, legumes and insects that bobwhite need for food and the heavy or brushy cover for nesting, brooding and safety. To help reverse bobwhite declines, NRCS is working with private landowners in North Carolina to manage for high-quality early successional habitat.

Technical assistance is free to producers. The agency’s staff of experts and conservation partners work side-by-side with producers to develop a conservation plan. Each plan focuses on bobwhite habitat management and is tailored to the landowner’s property. These plans provide a roadmap for how to use a system of conservation practices to meet natural resource and production goals.

Financial assistance is offered through EQIP to eligible landowners to help producers pay for the adoption of conservation systems that improve early successional habitat, which benefits game and non-game species and can benefit grazing and forestry operations.

For more information on EQIP and WLFW, please contact your local NRCS Field Office today.