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July 22, 2006
Press Release

Minnesota Quail Enthusiasts Start Quail Forever's Northernmost Chapter
Public invited to chapter's meeting on Thursday, August 9th

St. Paul, Minn. - July 20, 2006 - Life-long quail enthusiast Thurman Tucker has started Minnesota's first ever Quail Forever (QF) chapter. Originally from Tennessee, Tucker has been working since 1973 to boost Minnesota's quail populations. A stable quail population used to exist in Southeastern Minnesota, but is now estimated to be at a mere 1,000 birds. The Southeast Minnesota Bobwhite Chapter of QF plans to hold their next meeting on Wednesday, August 9th, at the Good Times Restaurant and Bar in Caledonia, Minnesota at 7 p.m.

"It's all about the habitat," explained Tucker, president and founder of the new Southeast Minnesota Bobwhite Quail Forever Chapter. "As a life-long quail enthusiast, I have always been working to analyze and improve quail populations whether I have been living in Tennessee or Minnesota. I realize Minnesota is on the Northern border of the bobwhite range, but their numbers could be higher with better habitat. Quail Forever was a great opportunity for me to start a local chapter to assist in building quail habitat in Southeast Minnesota."

Bobwhite quail population losses over the past 25 years range from 60 to 90 percent in many of the states in the bobwhite range. Minnesota has not had a quail hunting season since 1958. Most people have never even seen quail in Minnesota or know that a hunting season ever existed. In the last 30 years, Tucker has developed and implemented a quail monitoring program in the state. He knows that the most common inhibitor for quail survival is a lack of brush-land habitat. Brush-land protects against soil erosion as well as providing nesting, brooding and roosting habitat. Landowners are the key to creating greater habitat for quail. Many landowners have idle areas in which land cannot be used for cropland, grazing or haying. These areas can be converted to brush-land and are great assets for quail.

To Tucker, a lot of it comes down to utilizing every opportunity available to assist quail. Enrolling land in a government program has the greatest benefit to landowners and quail. The new chapter plans on promoting and assisting landowners in enrolling acres within Conservation Program 33 (CP 33). Established in 2004, CP 33 is the newest Federal conservation initiative with the objective to enroll acres in buffers for up to 10 years to assist in the reversal of bobwhite quail populations. Acres are retired for 10 years. Minnesota has been allocated 500 acres, but less than 100 are currently enrolled. Any allotment of acres can be enrolled, from five to one hundred. If all acres are not enrolled by the end of 2007, Minnesota could potentially lose any amount of that allocation that is not enrolled.

"Minnesota and quail have a great opportunity available to them with CP 33," commented Aaron Kuehl, Pheasants Forever and QF's regional wildlife biologist in Southern Minnesota. "If we do not enroll the remaining acres available, there is a strong possibility that they will be put to use elsewhere. Quail have a great potential to fortify a comeback in Southern Minnesota, we simply need to take action and create the brush-land habitat that is needed for their survival."

The Southeast Minnesota Bobwhite chapter of QF plans to hold their next meeting on Wednesday, August 9th, at the Good Times Restaurant and Bar in Caledonia, Minnesota. The meeting will begin at 7 p.m. and the public and media are invited to attend. For more information about the meeting or the new chapter please contact Tucker at (612)588-2007 or via e-mail at wtcn.nature@att.net . If you are interested in starting your own QF chapter in Minnesota, please contact Kuehl at (507)639-7345 or via e-mail at akuehl@quailforever.org .

Pheasants Forever (PF) launched QF to address the continuing loss of habitat suitable for quail and the subsequent quail population decline. Unlike all other national conservation organizations, QF and PF empower local chapters with the responsibility to determine how 100 percent of their locally raised conservation funds will be spent. This local control allows members to see the fruits of their chapter efforts in their own communities, while belonging to a national organization with a voice on federal conservation policy in Washington D.C. In the organization's first ten months of existence, 64 chapters have formed in 23 different states.

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