Cheatham was also going to be the second adult on the hunt with Smith in early January until the snowstorm intervened. “When that snow arrived, he said he’d had something come up,” Smith said, leaving just Smith and Max to brave the snowy landscape.

“Clint was out there that day. You just can’t really hunt quail with that kind of snow on the ground, and you don’t really need to be out there messing with them in that kind of weather. Dogs have a hard time and don’t really move in that. I went out a couple of hours Saturday and didn’t go back the next day. Clint and I got to visit a while on Saturday, though.”

Smith, who grew up hunting quail in Alabama in the 1960s and ‘70s, was glad to see the work that’s been done at Stone Prairie to restore quail habitat. He says he doesn’t do much quail hunting in Arkansas any more — “I just haven’t had much luck here” — but he says he did years ago, along with taking quail hunting trips to Texas and Oklahoma as well as to shooting preserves in the region “where they turn the quail loose. I do a little of that.”

“I live in Sherwood so I’m real close and real familiar with it,” he said of Stone Prairie. “I go out to the (Camp Robinson) SUA a lot to train my dog, put him on some quail out there when they aren’t running field trials. Stone Prairie is looking like quail country. I guess they are doing what they can. They are doing a good job.”

The permits at Stone Prairie, Johnson said, were set up for four people with only two being adults, to emphasize having a quail hunting opportunity for youth hunters. Regulations included a stipulation allowing non-hunting dog handlers to not count toward the hunter number, knowing that many would-be quail hunters would need to find a dog and handler. Similar permit hunts were scheduled for Little Bayou WMA in Ashley County as well, but Little Bayou may have had worse weather, especially for the second hunt. Johnson said that Marcus Asher, an AGFC biologist, found two coveys of quail in December.

“We didn’t stock them, or anywhere else we are doing habitat work,” Johnson said of the quail found on Stone Prairie. “The place had quail on it when we acquired it. It probably has two or three times the number of birds since we acquired it. We’re pretty happy with that place.”

Johnson said he and AGFC staff did over 500 acres of hack-and-squirt work to restore degraded forest to post oak woodland and another 175 acres of fescue eradication. “We’ve burned on an 18-month rotation since we acquired the property,” he added. Stone Prairie totals 989 acres.

Smith said, “I’m 77 and grew up in Alabama and I’ve seen real quail habitat. The reason we don’t have much habitat now, that’s not y’all’s fault or anybody’s fault, it’s just the times … You can drive out around north Pulaski County to Stone Prairie and Camp Robinson and the farm fields around there used to have soybeans in them; now it’s just old hayfields and the fencerows are all cut. But it used to be real good habitat.

“It just takes decent habitat. The rest will take care of itself. The habitat just drives the quail.”

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CUTLINES:

HUNTERS
Jim Smith of Sherwood (left) and his setter Max, helped James Cheatham of Glen Rose and his father harvest the first northern bobwhite from Stone Prairie WMA since its acquisition in 2016.  Photo courtesy Clint Johnson.

WOODS
Images from before and after forest stand improvements show the change from a shaded barren forest floor to one full of beneficial plants thanks to increased sunlight. Photo courtesy Clint Johnson. 

HACK-AND-SQUIRT
Biologists removed undesirable trees from the forest through a method known as “hack and squirt” where a tree is injected with herbicide to kill it without affecting surrounding trees or vegetation.

“AGFC has performed quail surveys on these WMAs since 2017 and we have a good idea of how many birds are there,” Johnson said. “Some simple math results in an estimate of how many birds can be harvested without negatively impacting the population, and a permit system allows us to carefully control the amount of pressure, which can be dialed in each year, based on population levels.”

Johnson says the permit hunts also offer more variety in experiences for the hunters who draw.

“Much like how deer regulations vary across the state to offer a variety of experiences for hunters, we want to provide a mix of quality and quantity for our quail hunters,” Johnson said. “These are by no means the only two public places to hunt quail in Arkansas. Most WMAs are open to quail hunting with the same structure as the statewide season, but you’ll notice a few other WMAs with more restrictions to balance hunting pressure to ensure we aren’t overharvesting the birds.”

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Turkeys and northern bobwhites have relatively short lifespans, so annual reproduction is extremely important to the total population and the quality of hunting. Data collected during the last three decades has shown turkey hunting success is closely linked to annual poult production and survival. Similar studies in bobwhite ecology show a similar correlation between reproduction and future hunting success.

Moscicki explains that exact numbers of birds in the state would be nearly impossible to determine, but the surveys give biologists valuable information on trends in populations, and the AGFC can use this information to determine effectiveness of habitat management efforts as well as focus future efforts where populations see steady declines.

“Turkey reproduction, as well as quail reproduction are heavily influenced by weather and some factors outside of the AGFC’s control, but we can definitely hedge our bets even in bad years by supplying the birds with the right habitat,” Moscicki said. “When the right habitat is available and those other factors come together, populations can see recovery relatively quickly.”

Clint Johnson, AGFC Quail Program coordinator, said another benefit of public participation in the annual turkey and quail survey is to identify new areas where populations may be rebounding that the AGFC can use to bolster populations on a landscape level.

“Relocating birds to new areas has shown marginal success, especially when areas are still being hunted,” Johnson said. “We’ve seen much more success by creating better habitat near known populations of quail and turkeys and allowing those populations to expand. If we’re able to locate previously unknown clusters of birds, we can focus our efforts to connect them with other nearby populations through habitat management.”

Visit www.agfc.com/turkey and www.agfc.com/quail for more information on these two ground-nesting game birds in The Natural State.

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The competition is open to all United States residents 18 years of age or older. Artists can find the full prospectus, entry guidelines, and a link to submit their work by Feb. 4, 2024, at https://historiccanehillar.org/quail-turkey/.

A panel will judge the quality of each piece in addition to its accuracy in depicting either the northern bobwhite or eastern wild turkey in their traditional Arkansas habitats.

A public exhibition will be held March 16, 2024, at the Historic Cane Hill Gallery to announce the winners. The exhibition will host work from competition winners and all accepted artwork from each category. In addition to their artwork being featured on each stamp, winners also will earn a cash prize of $2,500 each. Second-place winners each will receive $500, and third-place winners will earn $250.

The exhibition will be on display in the Gallery for public viewing March 16-April 22. Weekly operating hours are Thursday-Saturday, 10 a.m.-2 p.m.

Visit www.agfc.com to learn more about the habitat work being funded by these voluntary stamps and how to purchase one. 

For more information on this event and to keep up with this partnership in the future, visit www.historiccanehillar.org.