Landowners should start planning now for spring projects that will increase habitat for northern bobwhites and other native Illinois wildlife. Chris Young/The State Journal-Register.
Illinois gains habitat specialists
THE STATE JOURNAL-REGISTER
The chicks were so small they were barely noticeable underfoot.
Only the slight rustling of matted prairie grass and some muffled peeps kept the hiking boot suspended above the ground in midstep.
For a moment they were visible, running in a single-file line between clumps of grass. Their mother followed close behind.
In an instant they disappeared back into the protective, waving arms of the tall grass at Long Branch State Nature Preserve near Havana.
Long Branch has what a lot of Illinois does not: habitat for birds such as the Northern bobwhite (better known as quail to upland bird hunters).
Hunters know that for more coveys of quail to rise, there have to be more scenes like the one above during the nesting season.
For landowners hoping to improve wildlife habitat and hunting opportunities, resources are out there, and more help is on the way.
Boots on the ground
On Monday, five new farm program biologists start work around Illinois — their salaries and office space provided by a unique partnership between state and federal governments, non-profit groups and fees paid by hunters.
Their job will be to help connect landowners with programs to help them maximize wildlife habitat opportunities on their property.
New biologists will be based in the vicinity of Lincoln, Champaign, Effingham, Fairfield and Salem.
“Part of their focus will be the SAFE areas (State Acres For Wildlife Enhancement) and Natural Resources Conservation Service programs like WHIP (Wildlife Habitat Incentive Program),” says Aaron Kuehl, conservation director for Illinois Pheasants Forever. “Anything to help us put wildlife habitat on the ground.”
A U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service grant is covering 50 percent of the expense. NRCS is donating office space and in-kind services.
Kuehl says matching funds come from state pheasant and habitat stamp funds plus contributions from Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever chapters.
“We’re pretty excited,” he says. “We’ll probably blow through our CP-33 acres in no time.”
CP-33 is a component of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Conservation Reserve Program targeted to develop buffer zones that serve as habitat for bobwhites and other upland wildlife.
“It’s just a matter of promoting it to the right people.”
Comeback potential
Driving down the highway, potential habitat projects can be spotted everywhere.
“That’s what I do,” says Mel Gajewski of Scheller. “I’m constantly looking at the fields.”
Gajewski is habitat coordinator for Illinois Quail Unlimited, now working in conjunction with the Quail and Upland Wildlife Federation. Quail Unlimited has been going through financial and organizational upheaval, and the Illinois chapter now is aligned with the new federation started by a former QU president.
Gajewski says one of the most important issues is the continuation of efforts to convert fields of fescue and brome grass to native prairie grass.
“A CRP field that has been planted in fescue or brome has almost zero benefit to wildlife,” he says. “We can offer a cost-share to help landowners convert these acres.”
Self-interested hunters who would like to see quail numbers rebound in Illinois ultimately will boost all kinds of wildlife.
“Habitat is the key for wildlife to rebound,” he says. “Anytime you are doing habitat for quail, you are helping every other species, including deer, turkey, pheasant, rabbit and many others.”
Gajewski says Illinois Quail Unlimited has a prairie-grass seed program and clover seed program that pays 75 percent of the cost of seed.
“We have a limited number of acres available to landowners through that program,” he says.
A wildlife habitat project that can be started right away is edge feathering.
Gajewski says Illinois Quail Unlimited will pay a portion of the cost of thinning woodland edgesand creating transition zones that species such as deer, turkey and quail prefer.
Trees cut are left where they fall.
“It’s chop and drop,” he says. “The machine creates instant habitat.”
Gajewski works mostly in central and southern Illinois, but his responsibilities encompass the entire state. He can be reached at 618-663-7423 or 618-625-6538.
Turn the dirt
In many cases, wildlife biologists and conservationists know what has to happen, but the stumbling block is finding dollars to pay the bills and muscle to get the work done.
“It’s the No. 1 challenge for wildlife habitat,” says Craig Alderman, head of the new Quail and Upland Wildlife Federation.
“We’ve got a good idea of what it takes to get (habitat) back, but it is the hands-on sweat equity that is needed,” he says.
First, landowners have to be convinced to let conservationists go to work on their woodland and field edges.
In Illinois, particularly, woodlands have to be opened up so sunlight can reach the forest floor. Without the sun, oaks and other nut-bearing trees can’t grow, and other understory plants and shrubs drop out.
The good news is that woodlands tend to respond quickly.
“It doesn’t take long,” Alderman says. “If there are populations present, they come back pretty quickly and the landowners are pleased.”
The new federation has chapters in eight states including Illinois.
“First, put the money on the ground and turn the dirt,” he says. “Sometimes you get too big and you lose focus about what your members and chapters are all about.
“And they are about turning the dirt.”
The federation is on the Web at http://www.quwf.net.
Start now
“It’s hard to think about (spring habitat projects) with snow on the ground,” Kuehl says with a laugh.
“But we’ve got a bunch of partnerships with the pheasant and habitat stamp funds, plus other grant programs including the Grassland Enhancement Restoration Initiative,” he says.
The latter is for landowners who wish to improve wildlife habitat but don’t have the acreage to qualify for farm-bill programs like CRP.
Another cost-share program is BONUS, or Buffer Our Natural UplandS.
This program is for landowners living near existing state areas — such as pheasant habitat areas. These landowners are offered incentive payments to add private projects that serve to enhance those nearby.
Another is Max CRP.
Landowners putting in at least 20-acre blocks of CRP or establishing CP-33 buffers up to 120 feet wide can qualify for an extra $50 per acre.
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Hope this is a positive step forward.
how can it not be, all ive seen is people complain we should be spending money on frontline people and now that we got some, people are still skeptical, they dont realize that dnr just cant snap there fingers and get these people and positions but noone seems to be willing to just wait a bit anymore and see if the dnr does positive things, they just want to shout and scream without giving the man half a chance to do things. kind of the same deal with the president
I’m willing to give them the chance. I’m hoping the dnr can be seen in a new light.something that is more than just a department that gets blamed for everything that’s wrong.but you must admit their track record ain’t been to good lately
well Mr Miller has only been in charge not very long and it takes time to get things done. he cant just go and make all these positions with a snap of his fingers, there is a process to it where he has to make sure he has the budget and funds then even when he has that it takes a while to find the right people for the jobs. its not like hiring a fry cook for mcdonalds. the only reason there track record hasnt been good is cause most people just dont have patience and wont give the man the proper time to get adjusted to his job, analyze things, then to make the correct decisions. it makes it 5 times as hard for the man when everyone is second guessing him or saying he should do this or that when they have no idea of what is actually going on.
If Quinn loses the election will Miller be gone after the inauguration? Or is it common for a new governor to leave DNR director in place? I would like to see Miller at least get a bit of time to turn things around. Seems like his heart is in the right place, if he can just get the legislators to listen to these experts he is hiring.
i agree and hope miller remains
illin, if a Republican gets elected it would be highly unlikely to leave a democrat (and former Quinn aid) in an appointed position. If it’s another democrat governor, it’s maybe 50/50… again, because of his strong ties with Quinn (which could still work against him).
It’s very, very rare for the director of a department stay after a change of governors, even if they are of the same party. manning was one of the few who was able to suck in.
This just looks like another huge waste of our taxpayer dollars. The federal govt and state are both massively in debt and shouldn’t be spending another penny on new employees for some BS job title.
People cry about the DNR not having a biologist to take care of the wildlife population and other projects but when the do hire some they cry because the state is spending money?? I think it a good idea to have a little more science backing the decisions they make. Just throwing money at projects without any thought and scientific backing is the waste of money.
Five new government jobs Lets see, say they make 70 thousand a year times 5 thats 350 thousand you could but allot of habitate seed for that kind of money Ole Ab hit that many counties on horseback all by his lonesome. Do we really need five. But if they make a difference I’m all for it but lets just wait and see. P.S. Maybe 70 thousand might be low ballin it.
“they just want to shout and scream without giving the man half a chance to do things. kind of the same deal with the president”
Posted by johnh on 01/16 at 02:46 PM
ABSOLUTELY BRILLIANT! (insert sarcasm) I have never seen a better example offered to demonstrate a persons limited mental capacity or knowledge of the facts! UNREAL!
Johnh here is another chance for you “halves” to collect another check paid for by us “havenots” as you said in an other post!! See why you want to give the president and these five a longer chance.
This was taken from the application form to apply for the (5) biologist positions. For the full app. go to Il. Pheasants / Quail forever site.
Funding is for two years, additional funding maybe available to continue.
Salary: 27,000- 32,000.
As someone who also has great memories of upland hunting I should be all in on this but I have doubts. How many studies of bird poo have to be done? We already know what they eat, what cover is needed, what soils are preferred and their other issues with how this is being approached.
I am with you Tim. This is a great thing but around here great ideas get twisted and distorted. Before they are done commenting on this article someone will twist it around to say that these new “habitat specialists” are trying to eradicate quail from the face of the earth.
Don, which part wasnt smart? the part about obama or the part about us not being patient enough
i sign up for state acres for wild life almost a year ago , getting no were, you start with fsa office( witch it is there project)but they dont have tectnitions to do the projects ,then they send you to nrcs office witch it is not there project, they have no intrest in it but they have tectnitions. we dont know if we will farm the land or start the project. in our county we have around 500 acres sign up for state acres for wildlife hope we get somthing done
Sounds great and all, but what good does it do for the average joe who only hunts public land? I hunt both private and public so I’m not crying sour grapes here. Using tax money to increase the habitat on private land and hiring chiefs to inform people how to do it (couldn’t a self explanatory website be set up), is just another form of welfare in a time when the country can’t afford it. But, as long as .gov has a printing press I guess it is all good, until everyone’s grandchildren on here have to pay the bill.
And another thought to ponder. If Miller does get axed due to Quinn losing (which seems inevitable) will his pension be based on the 120K + for less than 2 yrs of service? And one wonders why the IL pension system is 48th out of 50 states.
I think it will be a joke. It doesn’t take a brain surgeon to plant border strips. If you pay a farmer to plant it he will, he doesn’t need a pup just out of college to tell him how to do it.I personally have had a application in for CREP since 1998. Nothing has been done, other than big name farmers or Doctor’s being paid to make their own personal hunt clubs. Dewitt county.
Yeah I have to agree you don’t have to go to MIT to know what it takes to hold birds for years I raised quail for dog training and let a ton go and years ago the state did to. But most time they didn’t make it. Even down south Al. and parts of Ga. the bird count is down. Some say because the cross breding between libbys and wild birds but no one really knows for sure.One reason that might be is when the chicks hatch with all the insecticides theres not enough bugs for the chicks. Who knows but the days of the hedge rows are gone and if by chance we could get more habitate ground it would be a good thing.
tim i dont want to say to much bad about my county but if you look for pheasants forever chapter 89 you will know
tim my project is a 3to 5 acre wetland with 15 more acres in food plot and worm season grass , the other is mostley worm season grass with some wetlands and food plots , iwill be at the state pf meeting on sat look me up
Tim I have a question I have ran field trial dogs down south Al. Ga. ect at allot of different Plantations. The habitate as been the same for years and years and even down there they really work to keep the birds. Theres times they will use crop duster planes just to drop feed and they will put scraps that will attract bugs for the young birds. Because down there the quail are a big business and they really have some experts that try and keep the birds. But some places they just can’t figure why the bird count keeps droping. So habitate is one thing but there must be other factors. Maybe someday some one will figure it out.
I can’t wait for spring to get here. I got 19.2 acres approved for CP-33. As soon as it dries up I will be planting my NWSG.
Trev
Tim Malone:
If releasing birds is a waste of money or
actually just hawk/owl/eagle food, then what
do you do once you establish an ideal field?
In my area there seems to be an overaboundant
amount of preditors that would just navigate
to these ideal fields if there were birds in them.
Back to my question and seriously how do you get
birds in them.
RE:CREP I have a neighbor who just put 177 acres in CREP..it took about a month for him, but his cousin is the SWCD person. I would be more in favor of giving Pheasants Forever or Quails Unlimited the resources at least you will see som results..
I think everyone can agree that lack of habitat is the major problem, but when birds were more abundant I don’t think there was much technical stuff about it, just pretty much natural habitat/cover and some crops left scattered around. Yes I know things have changed. What happens after two years and more funding isn’t available? Does the program end and the money is wasted? Does this end up like the deer deal, outfitters and leasing? Does private land qualify for deer and bird habitat? That would be a perfect world for someone. I think the tough problem of access in this state needs to be addressed. In the meantime improve public the lands.
RE: CREP WOW after my application set on her desk since from Nov 14 2007. I finally got a call back.
Tim, I have the letter from the lottery where I was to be accepted into the program. Yet I am not in it.
This new idea by PF is by far the best idea they have come up with in a long time. One thing is though, they fired the habitat specialists about 2 years ago (they actually did the work), which scares me a bit for these 5 individuals. I hate the fact that PF has regional biologist that make good money and they should also be the ones selling the federal programs not just going to banquets.Not sure who wrote there job descriptions. Us local chapters should be the ones voluntaring with the local USDA office to help, but no chapter does. Anyway, I have ground in DeWitt County and have worked with great folks in the USDA office, folks like (Darin Moser, Shelley Finfrock, Murl Kimmel, Terri , and some new faces (I haven’t worked with Doug) they know the programs in and out, and I don’t think for one second that they would jeoperdize your application (kevin) for anybody elses. With as much paperwork that has to take place, policies they have to follow, and many other things, its very hard to keep track of everything. (Did you ever follow up on a weekly basis),but the working relationship and the fact that I get along with all of them makes conservation enjoyable. I am not a Doctor or a rich farmer, I just enjoy wildlife and nature in fact I have planted many acres by myself and haven’t “begged” the usda to help me (cost wise, just technical). I bought the land and I will protect the great land because I care.
Sorry, I kind of got off on a tangent, but if you all would know Kevin, he is a big pot of unwanted steam that likes to hear himself blow.
Bottom line, PF made 5 jobs alavailabe with the help from some grants to increase technical help and promote habitat in areas that need help.
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