Research Projects
Quail Cover Bundle Survival Rates
Period: January 30, 2002 - December 30, 2004
Contact: Nadia Navarrete-Tindall
Organization: University of Missouri
Funding Source: Prairie Fork Trust
Objectives: Early successional shrubby cover and covey headquarter areas are a critical habitat component for bobwhite quail that have gradually been eliminated from the landscape on many farmsteads across Missouri. The Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) and other conservation partners recently developed the Quail Cover Bundle (QCB) as part of an initiative to promote the planting and management of shrubby cover on private lands for improved quail habitat. In addition, bobwhite quail needs a variety of interspersed early successional habitats (including forbs, legumes and warm season grasses) that provide food as well as nesting, roosting and escape cover.
The QCB contains a mix of native shrubs that have been identified as having the potential to provide quality escape cover for bobwhite quail. The QCB includes bare root seedlings of false wild indigo (Amorpha fruticosa), fragrant sumac (Rhus aromatica), gray, silky or rough leaf dogwoods (Cornus racemosa, C. obliqua, and C. drummondii, respectively), blackberry (Rubus spp.), and wild plum (Prunus americana). The bundle is being promoted and sold by two nurseries in Missouri, the George O. White, MDC state nursery and the Forest Keeling Nursery.
One of the goals for this project was to evaluate optimal establishment methods to assure survival, growth, and development of those woody plants that have been included in the QCB at the Prairie Fork CA and at the MU HARC. Additional support was provided in 2003 to establish the QCB plantings at three other locations.