Brennan, Leonard A.

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University of Tennessee, Knoxville: Trace

National Quail Symposium ProceedingsVolume 7 Article 1322012Closing Remarks: Are We Whistling Past theGraveyard?Leonard A. BrennanTexas A&M UniversityFollow this and additional works at: http://trace.tennessee.edu/nqspThis Closing Remarks is brought to you for free and open access by Trace: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. It has been accepted forinclusion in National Quail Symposium Proceedings by an authorized editor of Trace: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. For moreinformation, please contact trace@utk.edu.Recommended CitationBrennan, Leonard A. (2012) "Closing Remarks: Are We Whistling Past the Graveyard?," National Quail Symposium Proceedings: Vol. 7 ,Article 132.Available at: http://trace.tennessee.edu/nqsp/vol7/iss1/132CLOSING REMARKS: ARE WE WHISTLING PAST THEGRAVEYARD?Leonard A. BrennanCaesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute, Texas A&M University, Kingsville, TX 78363, USACitation: Brennan. L. A. 2012. Closing remarks: are we whistling past the graveyard? Proceedings of the National Quail Symposium7:367–369.Key words: case histories, hunting, management, northern bobwhites, quail, research, successINTRODUCTION‘‘Whistling past the graveyard’’ is an idiomatic phraseunique to the English language. It came to mind oneevening when I was thinking about how to organize theclosing remarks for this conference. The wiktionary.orgdefinition of the phrase ‘‘to whistle past the graveyard’’ isreally more of a 4-part explanation than a definition: ‘‘Toattempt to stay cheerful in a dire situation; to proceedwith a task, ignoring an upcoming hazard, hoping for agood outcome.’’ At first pass, it might seem strange tomake connections among the 4 parts of this definition-explanation and any lessons about quail science andconservation that might be learned from Quail VII.However, as I continued to think about it, the 4 phrasesthat combine to define this idiom have a direct connectionwith the current situation with quail in the United States.ATTEMPT TO STAY CHEERFUL IN ADIRE SITUATIONThe current situation with quail habitat and popula-tions in the United States is dire, indeed. The recent report(Dailey et al. 2011. State of the Bobwhite: GrasslandConservation at a Crossroads, National Bobwhite Tech-nical Committee, Knoxville, TN, USA) outlines a set ofcircumstances for northern bobwhites (Colinus virgin-ianus) that is especially troubling. Each of the past 5National Quail Symposia, going back to Quail III,documents a continuing and worsening situation forbobwhites. Scaled quail (Callipepla squamata) are alsoexperiencing widespread declines, the endangered maskedbobwhite (Colinus v. ridgewayi) is virtually gone from arefuge that was originally purchased for the sole purposeof recovering this species in the U.S., and the status of therest of the western quail remains uncertain.Despite this rather awful situation, I am amazed at theattempts my colleagues have made with respect to puttingmassive amounts of positive energy towards stopping thequail declines. In other words, people have stayedcheerful in this dire situation. The 2 most obvious waysthat people have stayed cheerful is by development of theNational Bobwhite Conservation Initiative Version 2.0(NBCI 2.0) and the Western Quail Management Plan(WQMP).NBCI 2.0 represents a major overhaul from theoriginal Northern Bobwhite Conservation Initiative.Perhaps most importantly, it contains a spatially-linkedset of resources that allows managers and biologists toassess the potential of areas for habitat improvement andrestoration across nearly the entire geographic range ofbobwhites, and it predicts outcomes for bobwhitepopulation density. Like all predictions it begs to betested, and this is part of NBCI 2.0. This is unprecedented.Thus, it is critically important for moving bobwhiteconservation forward.The WQMP represents a major step forward forwildlife agencies in the American West. If nothing else,the WQMP brings western quail to the forefront ofmanagement attention and priority after languishing in thebackground for decades. The key to the success of boththe NBCI and WQMP will be buy-in and support fromstate wildlife agency administrators.The third thing that quail scientists and managershave done to stay cheerful in a dire situation is to conducta rather impressive amount of research since the lastNational Quail Symposium 5 years ago. With 80þpresentations (both oral and poster), Quail VII representsa high water mark with respect to the quantity of researchfindings communicated at a National Quail Symposium.For example, the past 5 National Quail Symposiaaveraged ~ 46 presentations per conference (Quail III ¼29 presentations, Quail IV¼ 64, Quail V¼ 54, and QuailVI ¼ 38, respectively).Of course, National Quail Symposia are not the onlyoutlet for quail research. There has been a recent spate ofbooks as well as stream of articles in the peer-reviewedliterature that continue to communicate new researchfindings about quail. While the vast majority of this effortis directed at bobwhites, this is nothing new. Material onbobwhites has dominated the past 5 National QuailSymposia.TO PROCEED WITH A TASKImplementing NBCI 2.0 and the WQMP are clearly 2tasks with which quail conservationists must proceed asthey whistle past the graveyard. This brief essay is not theplace to drill into the details of implementing these1 E-mail: lennybrennan713@gmail.com3671Brennan: Closing Remarks: Are We Whistling Past the Graveyard?Published by Trace: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange, 2012landmark initiatives. However, I think it is safe to say thatour next generation of wildlife scientists and managers(the ones who are just entering university wildlifeprograms today) will have major roles in implementingNBCI 2.0 and the WQMP.Of course, there is that old bromide: ‘‘More researchis needed.’’ In 2011 the quail world experiencedsomething unprecedented, populations were doing poorlyeverywhere, from east to west and north to south, as aresult of drought in the west and southeast, and severewinter or too much rain in the east. Will quail populationsonce again rebound 100%, or will the continuing declinein habitat suitability translate to a step-down in long-termquail recovery? Thus, whether bobwhites and otherspecies of quail operate as metapopulations needs to beaddressed, along with the implications related to dispersal,landscape permeability, and amount of habitat areaneeded to maintain population persistence, etc.IGNORE AN UPCOMING HAZARDNearly every prevailing land use in the continentalUnited States is hostile to sustaining and elevatingpopulations of wild quail. The iron triangle of intensive-farming, industrial forestry that grows and harvests treeslike corn, and the inexorable sprawl of suburbia have beenthe death knell for wild quail over many 10s and even100s of millions of hectares. Grazing and rangelandmanagement is also problematic especially where exoticgrasses, so-called ‘‘improved’’ pastures, and excessivestocking rates predominate. However, rangelands thatcontain mostly native vegetation, and are not overgrazed,represent one of the best, and last, economical opportu-nities for quail conservation today.NBCI 2.0 and the WQMP are not ignoring these land-use hazards when it comes to quail conservation. In fact,they are addressing many of these issues either head-on,or through influencing policy through the politicalprocess. Researchers are not ignoring these hazards either.For example, studies of the effects of exotic grasses onquail habitat use and production are something of agrowth industry in places like Texas and the Southeasternstates. Knowing, for example, that some of theseintroduced grasses, such as buffelgrass (Pennisetumciliare), provide adequate nesting cover but inadequateforaging cover for quail has been an important stepforward with respect to understanding the hazards theypresent to quail.HOPE FOR A GOOD OUTCOMEIn the 21st century, the places where we will havewild quail, and the opportunities to hunt them, will bethe places where people implement purposeful manage-ment that provides habitat on the appropriate scale whichwill support their annual life cycle needs. We see theeffects of purposeful management on quail today. Forexample, Conservation Reserve Program initiatives inthe Southeast and Midwest states failed to provide anykind of purposeful management for bobwhites for . 20years until the longleaf pine (Pinus palustris) initiativeand the buffers for bobwhites (field borders) programstook hold.In places such as the Red Hills of Georgia and Floridaor the vast rangelands of South Texas, people have made aconscious decision, based on various sets of strategies,tactics and motives, to keep quail habitat intact. It shouldcome as no surprise, that areas like these containsustainable and huntable populations of bobwhites.Cultural management, however, seems to be all the ragethese days. Cultural management include actions such assupplemental feeding, releasing pen-raised birds, control-ling predators, translocating wild birds, or politicalmaneuvering to shorten hunting seasons and/or reducebag limits. Cultural management does not sustain orrestore wild quail in and of itself. Purposeful managementdoes. Purposeful management is the essential componentif hope for a good quail conservation outcome is to berealized.AN ALTERNATIVE DEFINITIONThere is a second, alternative definition of ‘‘to whistlepast the graveyard’’ in wiktionary.org that is much moreforeboding than the first one that I mentioned at thebeginning of this essay. This alternative definition is: ‘‘Toenter a situation with little or no understanding of thepossible consequences.’’ The current situation for quail inthe U.S. clearly represent a situation where we may haveonly a foggy view of the possible consequences of ourquail conservation efforts. Indeed, drought, severe winter,massive wildfires, climate change, and anthropogenic-caused extinctions are all possible consequences in thisworld. However, not knowing the possible negativeconsequences of attempting to provide positive solutionsto challenges such as quail conservation is not a legitimatereason to shy away from such pursuits. By ignoring theongoing quail conservation crisis, we can be certain thatquail numbers will have even less chance of beingsustained and elevated than they would by implementingNBCI, WQMP, and other efforts.A NEED FOR SUCCESS STORIESOne of the glaring omissions from the Quail VIIprogram is case histories of management successes. Ofthe more than 70 papers presented, only 1 (on mountainquail [Oreortyx pictus]) documented there were morebirds on the study areas at the end of the project thanthere were at the beginning, which represents acombination of purposeful management (riparian vege-tation restored for Salmonids also restored quail habitat)and cultural efforts (translocation of wild birds).Success stories are out there, and we need to createmore of them. Back in October 2011, I was stunned at aparagraph in an e-mail from my colleague Dick Potts(Box 1). I never thought that recovery of the partridgepopulations on his Sussex study area would have beenpossible in our lifetimes. I sincerely hope that whenQuail VIII takes place in Tennessee in 2017, there will368 BRENNAN2National Quail Symposium Proceedings, Vol. 7 [2012], Art. 132http://trace.tennessee.edu/nqsp/vol7/iss1/132be a prominent, and well-populated with presentations,session on the program dedicated to case histories ofquail management success stories.TO ANSWER THE QUESTIONSo, are we really ‘‘Whistling Past the Graveyard’’when it comes to quail science and conservation? In manyways, we are. However, I will argue that we are whistlingpast the graveyard in the best possible way, knowing fullwell that we are doing everything we can to make sure thegraveyard of past quail conservation failures does not getany bigger. The success of NBCI Version 2.0 and theWQMP will be judged on the success stories that emergefrom management efforts related to these initiatives. Thesuccessful application of the body of research informationpresented at this conference, as well as in peer-reviewedjournals and scholarly books over the past century will bekey to the purposeful management actions required tosustain and elevate populations of wild quail.ACKNOWLEDGMENTSI sincerely appreciate the invitation from the QuailVII Program Committee to contribute these thoughts andcomments. I also appreciate the editorial guidanceprovided by T. V. Dailey and C. E. Braun that improvedthis paper.Box 1. Excerpt from an e-mail from G. R. Dick Potts,Director Emeritus of the Game Conservancy Trust,regarding recent gray partridge (Perdix perdix) restorationefforts in Sussex. This area in the United Kingdomexperienced a 90%þ decline in partridges from the 1960sto the early 21st centuryDear Lenny,Things have just got better and better here.Biodiversity has been almost completely restored on a1,200-ha part of my Sussex study area. Partridge numbersare up 100-fold without any rearing with 400–500 now shotper year, and all achieved since I last saw you in 2006!Dick PottsFordingbridge, UK24 October 2011QUAIL VII: CLOSING REMARKS 3693Brennan: Closing Remarks: Are We Whistling Past the Graveyard?Published by Trace: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange, 2012

Closing Remarks: Are We Whistling Past the Graveyard?

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Closing Remarks: Are We Whistling Past the Graveyard?

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