To assist land managers in sustaining and expanding quail populations, the First Annual Quail Management Symposium will be offered from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 9 at the National Ranching Heritage Center (NRHC) at Texas Tech University in Lubbock.

“We want to emphasize practical things people can do to maintain their core quail population and prevent steep drops,” said Dr. Brad Dabbert, one of the symposium organizers and Burnett Foundation Endowed Professor of Quail Ecology at Texas Tech University.

“Rainfall influences the reproduction status of quail,” Dabbert said. “During the drought in 2011, only about 18 percent of quail tried to make even one nest. Since then we have had years of good rainfall, and this year we have a boom in the quail population.”

Dabbert believes Texas land managers tend “to stop management efforts when it doesn’t rain.” Since each day is a day closer to the next drought, Dabbert wants the symposium to help people learn practical techniques that will help maintain the core quail population, lessen the decline and hasten the increase.

The symposium is jointly sponsored by the NRHC and Quail-Tech Alliance, a research and demonstration project coordinated between the Texas Tech Department of Natural Resources Management and Quail First, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.

Dabbert, who has published more than 50 research articles and been awarded more than $4 million in research grants, will be one of three symposium speakers. His presentation will emphasize practical steps that have been taken for bobwhite management in the Rolling Plains and how these techniques can be applied to other areas of Texas.

Dr. William Palmer, president of Tall Timbers Research Station and Land Conservancy in Tallahassee, Fla., will be the keynote speaker. He will discuss a legacy of bobwhite research from the Red Hills region of Florida and Georgia. Palmer has developed one of the largest game bird research programs in the nation and has extensive experience in protecting game bird populations through science, conservation and planning.

“The Tall Timbers Research Station is the origin of quail research in this nation,” Dabbert said. “They have a history and a legacy of game bird research. Some of their techniques will work really well here and we’ll be able to use them.”

The symposium will open with a discussion of the general biology of quail by Byron Buckley, a field biologist for Quail-Tech Alliance and a Texas Tech Ph.D. student in natural resources management. The program also includes two 30-minute demonstrations of quail research fieldcraft (e.g., trapping, handling and tracking) and technology in quail research (e.g., drones, GPS radios, thermal cameras).

The cost of registration is $10, which includes a chuck wagon dinner prior to the keynote speech. Participation is limited to 100 individuals and the registration deadline is Feb. 2. For more information or to register for the symposium, visit ranchingheritage.org/quail/ or call Helen DeVitt Jones Director of Education Julie Hodges at 806.834.0083.

The National Ranching Heritage Center is a 27-acre museum and historical park dedicated to preserving and interpreting the history of ranching and addressing contemporary ranching issues. The center is located at 3121 Fourth St. on the Texas Tech campus.

(News release from the National Ranching Heritage Center)