Indiana NRCS Encourages Landowners to Start Planning for Future Bobwhite Funding Opportunities

Damarys Mortenson, State Conservationist for USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) in Indiana is pleased to announce another successful year of participation in the Working Lands for Wildlife Northern Bobwhite Quail program.  In fiscal year 2023, Indiana NRCS funded more than $581,000 to landowners which supported voluntary conservation on 1,111 acres of private working lands to benefit northern bobwhite quail while achieving other conservation benefits, including sequestering carbon and improving soil health.  In record fashion, Northern Bobwhite funding in Indiana for fiscal year 2024 is already exhausted but Mortenson says now is the time for landowners to start working with their local biologist to prepare for future funding opportunities. 

“Indiana NRCS has a long track record of supporting the vital relationship between agriculture and wildlife conservation,” Mortenson said. “The Northern Bobwhite funding opportunity demonstrates the power of partnerships to conserve wildlife habitat, protect clean water and address climate change on our working agricultural lands.  The success of this initiative would not be possible without the help of our conservation partners, including Pheasants Forever, Quail Forever and the Indiana Department of Natural Resources.” 

Bobwhites depend on early successional habitat grasslands, shrubby areas, and oak habitat found throughout Indiana, but Indiana’s Northern Bobwhite Quail is targeted in central and southern Indiana. These habitats have the forbs, legumes and insects that bobwhite need for food and the heavy or brushy cover for nesting, brooding and safety. However, changes in how agricultural lands have been managed, plus increased development has caused bobwhite numbers to dip by more than 80 percent, over the last 60 years. 

To help reverse bobwhite declines, NRCS offers technical and financial assistance to help landowners manage for early successional habitat through the Working Lands for Wildlife Northern Bobwhite Quail program. This assistance helps producers plan and implement a variety of conservation activities that benefit the bobwhite and many other game and non-game species.  Other statewide projects like the Grasslands for Gamebirds and Songbirds Resource Conservation Partnership Program, led by the Indiana Department of Natural Resources, and Conservation Reserve Program SAFE for Bobwhite, layer additional funding opportunities for Indiana landowners to help protect and develop bobwhite habitat. Through these programs, landowners have made wildlife improvements to their lands, such as establishing field borders and buffer strips, integrating native plants into conservation cover and pasture plantings, and promoting healthy habitat through brush management and prescribed fire to invigorate vegetation.

While fiscal year 2024’s funding has been fully allocated, Indiana NRCS expects future funding opportunities in fiscal year 2025. Landowners who are interested in future funding to support bobwhite quail populations should speak with their local biologists now to start the conservation planning process.  You can find your local USDA Service Center by visiting https://www.farmers.gov/working-with-us/service-center-locator.        

More information about the Working for Wildlife Northern Bobwhite Quail program is available by visiting https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/programs-initiatives/working-lands-for-wildlife/northern-bobwhite.