Texas Quail Unlimited Council Supports The Northern Bob White Conservation Initiative (NBCI) for All States, Texas Style

Stepping up to help all states in the recovery of the Northern Bob White Quail, the Texas state council donates critical funding, which now will be matched by the State of Texas, a double benefit to conservation.

Edgefield, SC (PRWEB) January 10, 2007 -- Another first in the battle for the recovery of the Northern Bobwhite Quail became reality as the Texas Council of Quail Unlimited (QU) provided a major donation of $10,000 for the Northern Bobwhite Conservation Initiative (NBCI). The donation will be immediately matched by the State of Texas, Texas Parks and Wildlife, doubling the impact of QU members throughout the lone star state to $20,000.

"To the best of our knowledge, this is the first state council to meet the overall challenge QU accepts to restore the quail through the NBCI, a landscape-scale restoration and population recovery plan in the US" stated Rocky Evans, President of Quail Unlimited. "As we have recently seen, quail recovery is beginning; our efforts and those of every state agency and QU members are seeing the fruits of their untold hours of hard work, fund raising and volunteer efforts over the years. Our Texas chapters and their state council are to be recognized and highly commended for the herculean efforts to reach out to the entire country as well as their home state of Texas in supporting the NBCI program" Evans strongly emphasized.

In March of 2002 the Northern Bobwhite Conservation Initiative was born from efforts of the Southeast Quail Study Group, a team of the leading quail biologists in the nation. Its sole purpose is to restore the bobwhite populations over its entire habitat range coordinating efforts to bring levels to a 1980 baseline. Being a habitat based plan, for success it must engage private land owners, the single most important group because the fate of the bobwhite hinges on their land use practices. Quail Unlimited is the major private organization dedicated to quail that provides vital human, logistic, political, financial, technical and other resources to the NBCI as do many state wildlife agencies, the Farm Service Agency, the US Forest Service and the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS)

"Texas QU Chapters are putting the power on the ground; state chapters have given over $300,000 toward quail studies, provided two pick up trucks and four all terrain vehicles as well as scholarships and paid expenses for the Bobwhite Brigade Camps for youth. Our state chapters support the Texas Quail Plan, the step down portion of the NBCI and have contributed more than $20,000 dollars to jump start it " proudly states Chip Martin, Regional Director for Quail Unlimited.

Quail Unlimited (QU) is a 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to the restoration of habitat for wild quail. Its almost 300 chapters nationwide raise local project dollars for on-the-ground projects, including private and public land management with banquets, auctions, sporting clay events and more. QU has a highly trained staff of biologists, state and regional directors and dedicated members that work with private landowners and state and federal agencies to restore quail populations. In 2005, Quail Unlimited chapters and partners invested over $2.2 million dollars in quail habitat improvements. For more information on QU, go to the website at www.qu.org .

Contact
Craig A. Alderman, Director of Marketing
Quail Unlimited
Ph: (417)-345-5960

America's Leader in Quail Conservation ™
Quail Unlimited, P.O. Box 610, Edgefield, SC 29824-0610

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