Okay, now that folks have had the chance to vent, lets do the math and science. Aw, heck, I'll start with History! At the beginning of the 1900's, 50% of Kansas residents hunted. Over time, folks have become more and more separated from the land. Currently, only 6% of Kansas residents hunt. Despite PETA's claim that they are helping wildlife, we all know that hunters are the only ones contributing to habitat management through normal funding streams. Honestly, farmers are doing much of it. Funding for wildlife management in the state comes from license sales and excise taxes on hunting equipment through the Pitman Robertson act. Those sources are why we have WIHA at all. Without them, we all would be searching for places we would have to get permission or a lease on in order to hunt at all.
Now lets mix the math and science. We all know what the law is. Laws are set to manage a species at the statewide level. All that is relative to the conditions and use at the field level. There will be sites where the don't kill a covey below 8 birds works and sites where it won't matter. The problem with that arbitrary rule is that it depends more on the population numbers in the area and the size of both the heavily hunted space (WIHA) and the amount of similar habitat surrounding it. Confused yet? I'll work on that. If you have a quarter section of WIHA and it's the only reasonable quail cover around, shooting a covey below 8 will have a significant impact. Theoretically, If there were 4-15 bird coveys on that quarter, you could, by using the shoot down to 8 rule, start with 60 birds and end the year at 8. Even that is bad science, because the two legged source of mortality, us, isn't the only source eating quail for supper. Since quail coveys intermingle and redistribute amongst one another on almost a daily basis, the stop at 8 rule has limited value when viewed from the "local" population perspective. Instead, shooting that 60 bird population down to 36 (40% kill) makes more sense, but to do that in a publicly open setting is impossible. In the long term, such a population is probably headed for extermination.
If we now move to a larger habitat footprint, the rules change. If that quarter is surrounded by other private land of equal quality and population with much lighter hunting pressure, spring ingress and egress will once again populate that quarter with quail, and with reasonable reproductive success, those acres will once again repopulate to a similar number. westernksbowhunter has it right. Habitat quantity and quality is responsible for the decline in quail from the east coast to the far western reaches of their range. We should welcome out-of-state hunters just as they should welcome us in their state. We all are sharing the cost of wildlife management and the WIHA program. Add to that the public wildlife areas, and all hunters have a reasonable space to hunt without asking permission or paying for a lease. The unfortunate part from my perspective is that many of the "deer" leases exclude all other hunting opportunities, limiting the space we have to seek access to. Many coveys never see a dog or gun and yet, they are contributing to the overall population. That being said, the larger the habitat footprint is, the more resilient that population is.
To throw some numbers at you, since the 80's in eastern Kansas, woodlands have expanded well over 25%. Also, since the 60's, fescue has taken over much of what was prairie previously. Add to that changes in cropping patterns and in grazing management, and you have many of the reasons SE Kansas is no longer the stronghold for bobwhite in our state. If you noticed the expansion of cedar invasion to the west over the last few decades, we're not immune to those same pressures in the western part of the state. The fear and ignorance of using fire for management is a big roadblock to having a stronger quail population. Our native grasses as well as bobwhite are all fire-obligate species. Drive around and look at much of the existing CRP. Very little of it has ever seen a fire and some of it dates back to 1985. The main factor that determines whether NWSG pastures/CRP persist, is time since fire. If WE want to benefit bobwhite, we could accomplish significant strides if WE helped landowners conduct prescribed burns on their land. Get food plots out of your head for a moment and consider that we have to nest them and brood them in order to recruit them. All of that is done before your food plot is planted most years and for sure before it is mature enough to contribute to reproduction. Fire and grazing are the predominant bobwhite management techniques that support quail populations and are the historic impacts that helped evolve the bobwhite species in it's development.
For those of you who love quail, here is some more math. Quail are not a good public land species. They are too susceptible to too many sources of mortality and you cannot stockpile them. Also, much of what many want to call instincts is actually learned behaviors that chicks pick up from their parents, that is the evolutionary reason that stocking them as pen-reared birds is a bust. As for public hunting areas, you will find that the environmental problems that occur on private land are also at work on public. Yes, we use more fire on many of our areas, but BOR and COE lands are prohibited from grazing and often they have significant hurdles to burning. Also, if you haven't noticed, most of our wildlife areas are located in riparian corridors, which are subject to much faster plant succession as compared to solely upland tracts.
What does the math, science, and history lessons teach us? If we want bobwhite to persist for our grandchildren to enjoy, we have to stop plant succession and habitat loss. Adding habitat is harder, but improving what is out there now and preserving the status of today's habitat should preserve today's numbers for as long as we can do that. All said, quit biting each other's arse and pick up the challenge and do something in the 9.5 months of off-season to ensure that your season remains viable. We all pay for the opportunity, just hunt smart and remain within the guidelines set by law. If you want to use an ethic tighter than the law, God Bless You. But don't force your ideology on your brother(sister). R3 is a buzzword these days. Recruitment, retention, and reactivation. The more of us there are paying for the opportunity, the stronger our populations will be long-term. Take a kid or woman hunting and get them hooked! Treat your farmers like they hold your future in their hands, because they do. Crap, do what grandma taught you to do and just play nice!!!
Almost left this out, in 2016, we raised fees for everyone an average of 32%. We hadn't had a fee increase since 2002 and inflation had increased 32% in those 14 years. Just to be able to do what we did in 2002 that increase was needed. We do some pretty amazing things with the limited budgets we have. If you want to know more, visit your local biologist or wildlife manager and see the list of accomplishments they have worked on for you. It's season. Let's get out there and enjoy what God has provided for us!
