Northern Bobwhite Photo courtesy of Missouri Department of Conservation.

Across their range, Northern Bobwhite populations declined by 65.8 percent (from 58,857,000 to 20,141,000 birds) from 1980 to 1999. This trend is reflected on the Central Hardwoods Bird Conservation Region (CHBCR), where populations declined by about 45 percent over the same period, and by about 28 percent from 2000 to 2007. Continued conversion of rural lands to urban uses threatens to increase the rate of decline even further.

To return Bobwhite populations to sustainable levels, in 2002 the Northern Bobwhite Conservation Initiative (NBCI) set the goal of restoring population sizes to 1980 levels. To reach this goal, the NBCI established habitat objectives for each of 15 Bird Conservation Regions (BCR), including the Central Hardwoods.

For these BCR-wide targets to be useful in guiding local conservation efforts, they need to be made spatially explicit at the regional level. In addition, current research indicates that concentrated efforts that build up core populations, from which Bobwhite can spread, are more effective than small, dispersed habitat restoration projects.

The CHJV partners are working together to coordinate Bobwhite conservation efforts to meet the goals of the NBCI for the Central Hardwoods.

Bobwhite were once widespread across the CHBCR, thriving in open grasslands with scattered shrubs. So that conservation efforts will be most effective, focus areas for habitat restoration have been selected in each of the states of the CHBCR, as shown in the map to the right.

The map background shows the current land cover types in each of the focal areas, as defined in the legend below.

Wes Burger of Mississippi State University developed a spatial model of current Bobwhite abundance and distribution. The model provided a starting point for consideration of where Bobwhite conservation efforts might best be focused.

Two workshops held in Spring 2007 brought together wildlife and private lands biologists from state and federal agencies, university research scientists, the NBCI Coordinator, and CHJV personnel.

The first workshop was held in Jasper, Indiana, in March and focused on those portions of Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee and Alabama that overlap the CHBCR. Thirty-three people attended. The second workshop was held in Ft. Smith, Arkansas, in April and focused on those portions of Arkansas, Oklahoma and Missouri that overlap the CHBCR. Nineteen people attended.

At the workshops, participants agreed that concentrating efforts in targeted areas is a valid and important approach for Bobwhite conservation. Toward that end, wildlife and private lands biologists selected focus areas (shown above) based on their habitat suitability and the presence of interested landowners willing to manage their land for Bobwhite habitat.

After the workshop, the CHJV Spatial Analyst did GIS-based analysis of each focus area to provide planners in each state with information on the acreage, percentage and range of patch sizes of various land cover types. An example of the results of the analysis are shown below, for one focus area in Tennessee. An ongoing project will map the potential historical distribution of glade, savanna and oak and pine-oak woodland habitat across the CHBCR. This information will help guide work toward the NBCI goal of natural community restoration.

Moving forward, private lands biologists will attempt to focus attention and Bobwhite conservation resources in the selected focus areas, and the results will be monitored over time. The CHJV is also assisting with a project to assess the status of other grassland-shrub birds in these focus areas. These data will be used to determine how improving habitat for Bobwhite affects other species of interest.