I was talking to a nearby 25,000 acre plantation owner yesterday that has followed the guidelines of Tall Timbers and their biologist, Clay Sisson, in particular, for 22 years. Even with an outstanding bird population on his place, he said that his covey count is up 50% in the last 3 years, an improvement oddly enough, he attributes to Hurricane Michael in October of 2018. As most know, a low basal area, particularly to around 40, has been determined by Tall Timbers to substantially improve ground cover and quail habitat. Most of the research shows that improvement stops below that point. Anyway, the hurricane took out loads of pine trees (among many others in the area), and while not enjoyable to experience or clean up, it did inadvertently improve a lot of quail habitat in the subsequent nesting seasons.

I've worked with Clay Sisson some through the years as well. Interestingly he was at my farm about a year ago to see how a cattle pasture conversion to quail habitat was going that I did it on an addition about 7 years ago. It has been super successful. Anyway, Clay was advising a fellow in North Florida that had recently purchased a large cattle ranch near Tallahassee and wanted to see how we had killed all of the Bahia and tropical Bermuda grasses. He and all off the Tall Timbers resources have been invaluable to so many that want to see Gentleman Bob at his best. It's great to see how they are now expanding their footprints into SC and TX, and even advising some in California on how to avoid their annual wildfires.

Tall Timbers book, "Tall Timbers’ Bobwhite Quail Management Handbook" has been my full game plan since it came out.

FWIW, burned on the left in 2021; burned on the right in 2020:
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