Counciled

This is what four years of work looks like:

It may not seem like much, but this is a huge step in restoring bobwhite populations in a place where there were once more quail hunters than deer or turkey hunters. It started with a few casual conversations back in 2011 that evolved into an appearance before the DNR's board of directors. A year later a finished plan was presented to that same board and the keystone to that plan was this council.

The council will be the steering committee for the work that gets done, all of the partnerships that form and all of the people we manage to bring into the fold. It's the first piece of a very large puzzle. Made up of over 20 federal, state and non-profit organizations and a handful of individuals, the level of enthusiasm and eagerness to participate was overwhelming. Seems people were just waiting to be asked. Let's hope that's the case as this little experiment grows.

Ed: Sorry to all those who clicked on the links in this post during the last 24 hrs. Appears there were some server issues. All should be working again.  11/11/14

The Great Bobwhite Revival - Round Two

It's been slightly over a year since I posted an update on this topic. Probably a bit too early to hang a "Mission Accomplished" banner on the aircraft carrier but tangible progress is not hard to find.

On March 23rd of last year I stood before the board of our state's Department of Natural Resources and outlined a process that would get the ball rolling on a statewide bobwhite restoration effort. The pitch, developed with great assistance from a staff biologist, stressed that this would be a collaborative effort between public and private entities, that the DNR would lead the effort, and that the initial stage, the formation of a comprehensive plan, would not cost anything.  We're extremely fortunate to have such a qualified, dedicated quail biologist heading up our state's small game program and truth be told, I was simply the pitchman in the deal.

In my eyes, the most encouraging part of that day was having one board member address the others and say, "The DNR's done a great job bringing deer to the state, bringing turkey back...what are we doing for the quail?"  The board unanimously approved development of the plan. Fast forward twelve months and that plan is circulating among DNR staff in draft form, awaiting final comments and revisions before it is presented to the board.  Barring a request for a complete re-write at that time, the plan could hatch into a full-on fledgling project later this year.

Where do we go from here?

An ongoing challenge will be funding. Eventually the project will require some bucks and the question turns to where that money will come from. Like many states ours not only has a budget shortfall, it has a legislature determined to avoid balancing that budget or, heaven forbid, creating a surplus. Private sector money will be a critical component in the first five years, possibly for longer than that, and building this network of donors and sponsors will be almost as important as planting field borders and prescribed burning.

At some point the project will have to hit a critical mass of supporters to become the landscape-scale success we all hope for. This road map hasn't been drawn yet but I've spent quite a bit of time scribbling ideas. What we'll have to develop is something that people want to be a part of, and ideally something they don't want to be left out of. It will have to radiate a certain cool factor.

Some of you may have seen this video from the TED talks about starting a movement. I've watched it a dozen times and still can't make it all the way through without laughing, possibly a side-effect of having been to a few too many music festivals.



We're still shy of the point where people will be ridiculed for not joining in, but we're definitely past the lone nut stage.

The death of QU

It wasn't a matter of if, but when.  Last month Quail Unlimited closed its books for the last time, ending a 31 year run of working to restore bobwhite populations across the country. Some would argue (and some continue to) that a fair chunk of this time wasn't spent working toward that end, but comments in this vein should be directed toward the management, not the membership.  A lot of work was done by faithful QU members over the years, and hunters continue to reap the benefits.

I'll admit I was a little confused by the various press accounts and the video of the announcement and all the talk around how the old QU would now fit into Quail Forever.  I called Bob St. Pierre, VP of Marketing for QF/PF and asked exactly what the relationship was between QF and Quail Albany and the former QU staffers.

"Five former staffers of QU have been retained on a contract basis to help set up QF chapters.  One media report labeled Bill Bowles the QF Southeast Regional Director and that is inaccurate.  These staffers have three to ten month contracts."

As for Quail Albany: "That is a former chapter of QU.  We hope to have them sign a chapter charter with QF, but at this time that hasn't happened."

QF did purchase the membership list of QU and as part of that deal received an endorsement encouraging the suddenly former members to take a look at what QF has to offer. Bob went on to say that he hoped members of QU would research QF through sources such as Charity Navigator and stressed that their model of chapters retaining control of 100% of the money raised would appeal to them.

One of the more common complaints I heard from QU members over the years, and the South TX chapter was as vocal as any about this, was that they would raise money, send it to HQ, and only see a fraction of it for local projects. There's something fundamentally wrong with this.  When local people go to a local banquet and give their hard-earned dollars to the cause, it shouldn't be shipped off to help someone's favorite covert two time zones away. Annual dues, sure, those should go toward the national effort and lobbying and such.  But funds raised locally should stay there, and that is the model QF (and PF) embrace.

A tremendous amount of time and energy in QU's leadership went toward keeping the ship afloat.  This is effort that could have - or should have - been put toward restoring bobwhite populations.  At least some of these resources will now be liberated in that direction. Consolidation of the bobwhite restoration effort will result in less duplication of effort and elimination of some overhead expenses whose funding dollars can now be pushed into conservation.

All of this is the practical side of things, the good, the bad, and the shameful on a fact basis. On a personal level, I'm a bit sad to see QU come to this end. I wrote a column for their magazine for several years (gratis) and met quite a few devoted bobwhite enthusiasts during that time, many of whom are still hard at work for the cause in one capacity or another.

Some QU members will no doubt fade away, disillusioned by the past few years.  This is unfortunate considering the state of the bobwhite and the challenges facing the sport but to some degree it is understandable and emphasizes the collateral damage caused by mismanagement. As if we need a reminder after the last five years on Wall Street, boards and executives have tremendous responsibility to make sound, conservative decisions that ensure the survival and prosperity of their organizations.

Still, you'd hope that every member would sign on with QF or at least with a local effort and continue the work that attracted them to QU in the beginning. This is not a movement that can afford to lose the support of a single soul, especially over the mistakes of a relative few.

For the record, I'm currently a member of QF and hold absolutely nothing against QU.  Their hearts were in the right place.

Well whaddaya know

Ever have that dream when you walk into a high school or college exam and it's already half over?  Same feeling I had on Friday when I showed up a half hour early, or so I thought, for the 10am board meeting of the Department of Natural Resources, the one where we were going to present our proposal for a statewide bobwhite quail initiative.  Seemed strange that the doors to the board room would be closed thirty minutes prior to the meeting start time.  I cracked one open and quickly figured out that the meeting - or some meeting - was well under way.

Turns out I never got the memo about moving the start time up an hour.  No big deal, these things happen and during a break I was assured that we'd be worked into the agenda once the meeting resumed.  Around 11am everyone was invited back in and fifteen short minutes later we had our approval.  All's well that ends well.

It was a big day for bobwhites in South Carolina.  After 40+ years of decline, this was the first officially recognized step in reversing the trend, and don't think that official recognition is just some boilerplate political stamp.  Any initiative needs the support of the DNR board to have an honest shot at success.  An unsanctioned side project might work if we were just trying to establish a few hundred acres of habitat as a demonstration area, but to impact bird populations statewide the endorsement of the board is requisite. Things just don't get done on a large scale without this commitment.

More importantly, bobwhites are now on the board's radar along with the "big money" species like deer and bass and the popular ones like turkey, ducks and billfish.  The people at the top are now thinking about bobwhites and what can be done to help them.  And I'm extremely grateful for their support, both Friday and going forward.

I'm amazed at the number of people, both inside and outside gov't agencies, who know about the plight of bobwhites, care about what happens to these birds and generally have an interest in seeing something done.  Yet almost without exception they have no idea what can be done.  It takes a step like Friday's meeting to raise the awareness that something can be done and that there are people working to make it happen.

What we asked for was approval to form a Quail Council, our name for a group composed of gov't agencies, non-profits and individuals who could participate in any way, shape or form in the restoration of bird populations. The DNR doesn't have the resources to do this on its own and public-private partnerships are becoming a very realistic, and often successful, option.  The specified purpose of the Council would be to complete the master plan and commit resources toward implementation.

What we got was a directive from the board to bring them a completed plan and a means (the Council) to accomplish it.  Pretty much the best we could have hoped for.  My guess is we have at least six months of work ahead of us before we can take a finished plan for implementation back to the board.

If you're considering pushing this type of initiative in your own state, and I sincerely hope some of you are, my one suggestion would be that you go out of your way to emphasize that you are not asking for money. We knew this would give our proposal a leg up given that our state is essentially broke and all agencies are being cut to the bone.  There's not enough to keep existing programs functioning much less to fund a new one.  As we progress we're going to do so with an eye toward finding most if not all of the necessary funding from external sources.

The Great Bobwhite Revival - Inching Forward

The season's over and looking at the sheet I send to the state's hunter survey it appears this little project is coming at the right time.  Cliffs Notes version: we need more wild birds.

So here's the latest on the Call to Action....

Support your state's quail initiative

We're scheduled to present out plan to the board of the DNR on 3/23.  Honestly I'm surprised and pleased at how quickly this all came together.  No idea what to expect out of the meeting but we have a pretty good pitch given that what we're proposing won't cost the DNR a dime, and if I were a government agency in a broke state and someone offered a high visibility project for free I'd be hard pressed to turn it down.

Tell your local Congressional delegation to prioritize Farm Bill conservation programs

As of my last post on this topic I'd written to one of my senators and one congressman and hadn't heard from either. Since that time I've received the standard form letter reply from the senator, a letter that didn't even mention the issue by the way, and heard nothing from the congressman.  For what it's worth, though, I ran across this post on the Quail Forever blog yesterday.  In it Dave Nomsen notes

I hope today’s announcement brings a sense of gratification to every Quail Forever member who has contacted a legislative official in support of CRP these last few months.  Our meetings and your conservation testimonials have led us to these new acres.

 So maybe those letters did a little bit of good after all.  And its a nice segue to the third item....

Join a grassland-habitat related conservation organization immediately

I took a pass on this in the last update claiming that I wanted to do some research and put my $$ behind the groups that were willing to play ball with us in SC.  I contacted QF and immediately received a "Count us in" and returned the favor by joining QF/PF.  I also called Bill Bowles, president of QU, and left a message.   And then I emailed.  And then I called and left another message.  Cue the crickets.  Maybe the guy is really busy, but if you're going to post a letter on your website inviting anyone to call or write, you might want to at least get a secretary (please tell me QU has at least one secretary) to return the message.  We'll still take their help if they want to jump in at some point but I don't think I'm going to send my money down there.

Ironically this was one of the same complaints that so many people had about the "old" QU.  I know they've had their troubles lately and I don't want to pile on, but for a group that's struggling to regain a foothold in the game this sure would be a fine opportunity to associate with a state-level project, one that will get plenty of favorable press (I'll see to it).  I understand that their coffers aren't exactly overflowing - whose are these days? - and while this project will need financial support down the road, it will also need expertise, manpower, and as wide and diverse a network as possible.  Plenty of ways for any individual or group to contribute.  QU, if you're listening, you really might want to give us a call.


Next update following the board meeting later this month.  Stay tuned...