SECTION 2
part 1
part 2
part 3

SECTION 3
part 1
part 2
part 3
part 4
part 5

SECTION 4
part 1
part 2
part 3
part 4
part 5
part 6

Successful habitat management means meeting all of the birds' yearly maintenance needs in relatively small areas. It is necessary to provide a habitat for all birds, be they young and old for each covey within areas ranging from 10 to 40 acres.

Where quail are absent or scarce, either food or cover is not adequate. If protective cover is available, populations usually respond favorably to management practices that provide plenty of fall and winter food. On the other hand, when further increases in food supply fail to increase population levels, landowners must manipulate habitat components to improve quail populations (Rosene 1969).

Several habitat management methods are available to landowners that are interested in improving quail numbers and hunting opportunities on their land. These methods are directed toward manipulating native vegetation and supplementing native food that exists in a particular area.

Controlled burning is often the most economical and effective method of creating and maintaining quail habitat in old fields, woodlands, and over large acreage's (Rosene 1969). Regular fire use during late winter months such as February increases the amount and availability of quail foods. Annual burning stimulates coverage and seed production of most grasses and legumes. Lush, rapid growing vegetation that follows fire attracts and holds large numbers of insects litter and discourages plant growth from becoming too dense (Rosene 1969). Quail also find it easier to feed in burned areas and food items are more abundant.

While burning is necessary to leave small, selected areas within the quails' 10 to 40 acre range to provide nesting habitat, fruit production, and refuge cover from predators. Leaving portions of well drained, upland areas unburned for one or two years helps create ideal sites for late spring nests (Rosene 1969). While burning may be an inexpensive and valuable tool in proper quail management, the intensity and timing of fire use are determined by many factors. Factors such as weather, and soil fertility, it is recommended that one take these things into consideration before applying this habitat implication. Burning can also be used as a means of suppressing brush re-growth on areas treated with other methods.

Mechanical methods of brush management generally seem more desirable than alternative methods in the management of game bird cover. Root plowing kills a high percentage of brush individuals but has the drawback of reducing the diversity of brush species on a treated area (Fulbright and Beasom 1987). It is possible that 50-200 years must elapse to recover the brush density present before root plowing (Fulbright and Guthery 1995). Light disking every two to three years will allow a variety of other native plants to develop. It is recommended that strips ten to twenty feet wide may be plowed, disked, fertilized, and seeded to grasses which will ultimately provide good nesting cover. Some good grasses for quail are: redtop, timothy, orchard grass, perennial rye grass, and mixtures or some native warm season grasses. Amazing increases in quail food and cover usually occur in a short time if not grazed. Every effort should be made to maintain scattered patches and travel lanes of dense, brushy, woody cover throughout each of the 10 to 40 acre areas.

Other treatments of brush with mechanical methods include shredding, grubbing, and chaining. Shredding is applied to maintain brush at low height, and this application, can mimic some of the same results as prescribed burning. Chaining takes out mature, single-stemmed plants and leaves low plants with supple stems. Disking, roller chopping, and aerating may be likened to shredding with soil disturbance (Fulbright and Guthery 1995).