Integrating Northern Bobwhite and Grassland Bird Habitat Enhancement Practices on University of Missouri Agriculture Experiment Stations: An Educational Model That Puts Knowledge into Action through Use of Demonstrations

Authors

Tim Reinbott, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri
Robert A. Pierce II, University of Missouri, ColumbiaFollow
Bill White, Missouri Department of Conservation, Jefferson City, Missouri
Brad Jacobs, Missouri Department of Conservation, Jefferson City, Missouri
Nadia Navarrete-Tindall, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri

Date of this Version

10-14-2006

Comments

Published in Proceedings, 11th Triennial National Wildlife & Fisheries Extension Specialists Conference, October 14-18, 2006, Big Sky, MT

Abstract

Over the past 50 years, advances in agricultural production negatively influenced habitats for bobwhite quail (Colinus virginianus) and grassland bird species. Farming systems, once beneficial for bobwhite, greater prairie chicken (Tympanuchus cupido), Henslow’s sparrow (Ammodramus henslowii), eastern meadowlark (Sturnella magna), and many other wildlife species, provided a diversity of early successional habitats. With increases in farm size, intensive cultivation, chemical weed and insect pest control and more efficient harvest practices, many producers have been able to stay in business, but quality habitats for many species have been reduced.