Quail Return To Pennsylvania

This past spring the release of 50 wild bobwhite quail on the grounds of the Letterkenny Army Depot, in south-central Pennsylvania, marked a turning point in a seven-year effort to restore bobwhites to the state, where they once lived in all 67 counties. About 100 translocated birds will form the core of a reintroduction project that may return the northern bobwhite to large tracts of managed habitat. They could become the nucleus for quail’s return to a landscape where they’ve been absent for 25 years.

The project is a partnership between the Pennsylvania Game Commission and Letterkenny Army Depot. Since 2017 studies and groundwork have included the Army’s commitment of about 2,700 acres of the 18,000-acre site and the manpower to manage habitat through mowing, seeding, disking, burning and tree removal.

The goal is the recreation of “old field” habitat—a mixed, successional grassland that provides food, nesting cover and shelter—and shrubby, woody cover that offers protection from the elements and predators.

Recreating optimal quail conditions is a science—much of it funded and implemented by sportsmen-conservationists. Pheasants Forever/Quail Forever has helped manage habitat on-site, and the National Wild Turkey Federation secured a grant to convert former agricultural leases into pollinator plots. The National Bobwhite and Grassland Initiative provided habitat review and connected the project with sources of suitable quail to be trapped and relocated, including birds from Virginia, Kentucky and Tall Timbers, in Florida, which is the leading research center on bobwhite quail habitat and translocation.

Every aspect of the habitat transformed at Letterkenny has been researched and documented, and the efforts will expand with quail on the land. Graduate students will track birds through the quail’s first breeding season, noting survival, habitat use, nesting success and movement. The Pennsylvania Game Commission, Letterkenny and various conservation partners will continue habitat work according to a management plan that runs through 2030.

Buy This Issue / Subscribe Now