Quail hunters from Southwest Florida have formed the state’s first Quail Forever (QF) chapter. The South Florida Flatwoods QF chapter will focus their efforts on improving quail habitat on area’s public lands.

Chapter President Nigel Morris, a wildlife biologist and former Georgia quail plantation manager, says, “We are very interested in helping with programs in the 65,000-acre Babcock-Webb Wildlife Management Area.” The state will acquire much of the 77,000-acre Babcock Ranch, which would preserve the single largest tract of contiguous conservation lands in the state's history. And recently, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) and other wildlife conservation authorities met at Tall Timbers Research Station near Tallahassee to map a plan to reverse a 25-year decline in Florida’s bobwhite quail population.

Challenges include thinning timber, replanting native grasses where exotic

grasses have been introduced, and thinning out palmetto heads.

FS