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Preface
- Texas A&M University Press
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Preface Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca’s mention of “quails” appears to be the first record of birds seen within the territory that now comprises the state of Texas. Oberholser (1974) The previous quotation is from Harry C. Oberholser’s monumental Bird Life of Texas. Assuming Oberholser’s scholarship is correct—and there is no reason to think otherwise—this means that quails are at the very heart of Texas ornithology. Quails also have a place in the hearts of many Texans. Hunting Texas quails is serious business to many Texans and to many people who visit Texas. More and more, quail hunting in Texas is a magnet that attracts dollars from wealthy urban economies to struggling rural communities . Although cattle have been king in Texas for more than 150 years, people are finding that these little birds may bring as much as, or more than, cattle when it comes to economic returns. Quail populations, and the habitat that supports them, can become potential income streams that keep family lands in the family and prevent large ranches from being sold, fragmented, or developed into subdivisions and shopping centers. We have enough subdivisions and shopping centers. What we do not have enough of is wild quails. One of my early visits to Texas was in response to an invitation to hunt on the Norias Division of King Ranch during January 1992. This was a legendary boom year for quails in the state. Seeing quails flush one, two, or even three “new” coveys as they landed after the initial covey rise completely changed my perspective of quail populations and habitat. Seeing such a density of birds—at least seven birds per hectare (about three birds per acre)—left an impression that is still with me today. It illustrated, among other things, how productive the Texas landscape can be when all the right habitat components are managed to capture the benefits of precipitation when it finally does rain. It also illustrated the lucrative sums that people are willing to pay to enjoy hunting what Aldo Leopold once called “grand-opera game.” Despite the fact that quails in Texas usually have two or maybe three boom years per decade, there may be some serious storm clouds for quails on the horizon. Huntable populations of bobwhites have been all but gone from the East Texas landscape for nearly three decades. This past year, quail numbers in the Cross Timbers failed to increase, even though rainfall was abundant. Long-term data show that quail numbers —and quail hunters—are declining at about 3–4 percent per year, depending on the region of the state. The regionwide declines that have devastated quail numbers in the southeastern states are moving west. Fortunately, Texas is one of the few states taking quail conservation and restoration seriously. Virtually all of the people who wrote the chapters in this book are involved with the new Texas Quail Conservation Initiative (TQCI). With many other colleagues, they have helped develop a plan to stem the declines and restore quail populations in Texas. The compilation and production of this book are but one small part of the TQCI. If this book does nothing else, I hope that it helps raise awareness about the plight wild quails are facing in Texas. Each year, less and less of the Texas landscape is hospitable to quails. The grasses that cattle prefer to eat are the same grasses quails need for nesting. The everburgeoning urban centers are inexorably creeping into, and taking over, wild quail habitat. Resource agencies and extension services are promoting quail conservation and restoration at the same time they are encouraging people to convert native grasslands to “improved” pastures. Modern agricultural landscapes are now essentially moonscapes when it comes to quail and grassland bird habitat. Until recently, people more or less accepted the philosophy that wild quails were an automatic by-product of land use in Texas. I hope that the people of Texas, after reading these chapters, will realize that we can no longer embrace this philosophy and expect to sustain wild populations of quails and the dozens of other species of grassland birds and vertebrates that share their habitat. Proactive management, policy incentives , and the adoption of a stewardship philosophy hold the solutions to this problem. Leonard A. Brennan Corpus Christi, Texas xii Preface ...