Habitat Management - Wildlife Management Pro

Bobwhite Quail Habitat Management

Habitat management is the key to bobwhite quail management. To better understand strategies to improve quail and quail habitat, additional research is necessary. One project in South Texas has been taking place on Tanglehead grass. This species is a native grass that has been behaving much like an invasive exotic grass in Jim Hogg and Brooks counties during the past decade. It does provide usable nesting cover for quail, but poor foraging habitat for bobwhites. This falls in line with of the research on buffelgrass from previous quail research.

In this on-going quail management research, research found that a combined brush control treatment (herbicide followed with fire followed with roller-chopping) versus summer prescribed fire, were about equally effective, and have similar effects, on grassland birds in the coastal prairie region of South Texas. Continue reading Bobwhite Quail Habitat Management

Wildlife Conservation Reigns at Llano Springs Ranch

The famed wide-open spaces of Texas are under siege, threatened by ever-expanding suburban development and fragmenting into ever-smaller pieces as people in cities buy up land in the country. The good news is conservation-minded landowners stand as bastions against these trends, places like Llano Springs Ranch south of Junction, which on May 21 received the Leopold Conservation Award for Texas from Sand County Foundation and the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, part of the department’s Lone Star Land Steward Awards program.

Every year, TPWD and Sand County Foundation recognize private land stewards in 10 ecological regions across the state, as well as the Leopold Conservation Award winner. For the fourth year, the Lone Star Land Steward Awards benefit from an association with Sand County Foundation, an international non-profit organization devoted to private landowner conservation. Ecoregion award recipients and the wildlife management association recipient receive $1,000 from the foundation, while the Leopold Conservation Award recipient receives $10,000 and the Leopold crystal. The purpose is to recognize outstanding examples of voluntary stewardship.

“I’m proud that we’ve taken a ranch that had been neglected for many years and turned it into something to be proud of, and we’ve done it ourselves,” said Tom M. Vandivier, part of the five-generation farm and ranch family which owns the 5,100-acre spread in Edwards County. He works the first part of the week as an attorney near Austin, then on Thursdays heads to the ranch and works all weekend.

“Whoever dreamed up this idea for land steward awards is right on target with what’s going on in ranching these days,” Vandivier said. “It’s a great motivator. When we learned about this, it got us motivated to do more. We’re thrilled to have won.”

The ranch contains the headwaters of the South Llano River, which flows into the Colorado. Years of work to remove water-sucking cedar and restore water-friendly native grasses are benefiting everything downriver, including thirsty cities like Austin. Land with restored grasses instead of cedar and rocks holds rainwater like a giant sponge, releasing it slowly and providing natural filtration. This helps aquifer recharge and prevents erosion, sending cleaner water downstream. Continue reading Wildlife Conservation Reigns at Llano Springs Ranch

Burleson Praire Wins Texas Lone Star Land Steward Award

It’s been four decades of hard work, but Bob and Mickey Burleson haven’t quit working to undo the damages done to 500 acres of prairie in Bell County from cropping and livestock overgrazing and their efforts have resulted in a model for native tallgrass prairie. Not only have they done a great job, they are one of the recipients of this years Texas Lone Star Land Steward awards.

By collecting and planting local ecotype native seed from area hay meadow prairie remnants, removal of invasive plants and use of various management tools, the Burlesons have successfully restored tallgrass prairie. Restoration of native tallgrass prairie has re-created habitat for grassland birds, the most declining group of birds in North America.

Native tallgrass prairie once occupied more than 20 million acres in Texas, now reduced to less than one percent of that and even less in the Blackland Prairie.

Both Bob and Mickey Burleson are former members of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission and founding members of the Native Prairies Association of Texas. They co-authored a tallgrass restoration guide, “The New Southern Reconstruction — Home Grown Prairies” and host numerous landowner field days.

High Lonesome Ranch Takes Home Land Steward Award

Charles and Nancy Hundley began their ranch improvement program 10 years ago by reducing the number of cattle and deer and cross-fencing to improve grazing management, but this year they take home one of Texas’ Lone Star Land Steward awards. Their wildlife program on the High Lonesome Ranch emphasizes management for trophy white-tailed deer, quail and dove in combination with a cow-calf operation.

Important goals include nutritional improvement, genetic development, and water conservation. Since water availability is an important key to wildlife diversity in South Texas, the ranch has focused on capturing rainfall through vegetation and soils management along with construction of tanks, diversion levees, and pipelines.

The ranch offers quality hunting for deer, feral hog, dove, quail and turkey as well as fishing, photography, and educational tours. According to Hundley, wildlife management is like poker — you learn what to keep and what to throw away.

King Ranch Wins Corporate Lone Star Land Steward Award

The King Ranch has been selected as the corporate winner of the Texas Lone Star Land Steward program winner. Aldo Leopold in 1947 said, “King Ranch does one of the best jobs of wildlife restoration on the continent, and has unparalleled opportunities for both management and research.” Val Lehmann, King Ranch’s first staff wildlife biologist, added “Wild game has perhaps received more attention on the King Ranch than on any other private ownership in North America.”

Wildlife habitat management practices on King Ranch date back to the early 1900’s when brush shelters were first constructed for bobwhite quail.

Wildlife habitat improvements pioneered by King Ranch include: (1) the installation of windmills at two-mile intervals across all four ranch divisions; (2) the creation of earthen tanks at windmill sites, many of which were fenced to exclude cattle, to provide overflow water to wildlife; (3) half-cutting shrubs to provide shelter for quail; (4) construction of “living fences” of prickly pear cactus in open areas to increase wildlife security cover; and (5) strip disking to cause soil disturbance thereby promoting early successional plant species important for a variety of wildlife.