Integrating Northern Bobwhite and Grassland Bird Habitat Enhancement Practices on University of Missouri Agriculture Experiment Stations: An Educational Model That Puts Knowledge into Action through Use of Demonstrations

Abstract

Over the past 50 years, advances in agricultural production negatively influenced habitats for bobwhite quail (Colinus virginianus) and grassland bird species. Farming systems, once beneficial for bobwhite, greater prairie chicken (Tympanuchus cupido), Henslow’s sparrow (Ammodramus henslowii), eastern meadowlark (Sturnella magna), and many other wildlife species, provided a diversity of early successional habitats. With increases in farm size, intensive cultivation, chemical weed and insect pest control and more efficient harvest practices, many producers have been able to stay in business, but quality habitats for many species have been reduced