Field tour promotes quail conservation on farms, ranches and timberland

PERRYVILLE - The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission will host a special in-the-field workshop to teach interested landowners how to balance Northern bobwhite habitat with agriculture, livestock and timber production from 4 to 7 p.m., Oct. 9 at Diamond Trail Riding Stables in Perryville. 

Clint Johnson, private lands biologist for the AGFC, has been overwhelmed with the positive response from Arkansas landowners in helping bring back bobwhite habitat to Arkansas’s landscape.

“Really the only reservations people who contact us have are costs associated with establishing habitat and whether quail conservation will conflict with their current goals for land use,” Johnson said. “But there are ways to offset those costs and promote sustainable quail habitat alongside many other land use practices.”

Johnson hopes the field tour will help people visualize exactly what good quail habitat looks like and how it can coexist with agriculture.

“We’ll tour a working farm and cover some of the innovative ways the landowner was able to increase the wildlife habitat for quail and many other species on his property,” Johnson said. “We’ll even go into some of the benefits to water quality seen from this work as well as the variety of habitat types available with quail restoration.”

The tour is free, but registration is required. Visit https://quailfieldtour.eventbrite.com to register. For more information, contact Johnson at 877-470-3650.