Di-lane Quota Quail Hunt

[Deplorable Birdhunter]

Have hunted multiple quota quail hunts, starting in the mid 90's, & was there for the 1st hunt of this season on Saturday December 2nd. It seems as though the areas that we hunted, at the Di-lane, had not been burned in 5 or more years. We did see some small areas that had been burnt, sometime this fall, but for the most part the under growth was extremely thick! Di-lane is a beautiful piece of property when driving by it but when you get out to hunt areas you soon find out that the ground level cover is too thick for a quail to even walk through! On the positive side quail food is in great abundance with beggar lice, lespedeza etc. But I am concerned that fire may not be being used like it once was! We did find one covey of quail & the place where the dogs found them was very suitable because the ground cover wasn't as thick as what we observed in most of the other places we hunted. I am not posting this as a complaint but am wondering if land management practices may have changed? Any thoughts or comments will be appreciated.

 

[Pruitt101]

Have hunted multiple quota quail hunts, starting in the mid 90's, & was there for the 1st hunt of this season on Saturday December 2nd. It seems as though the areas that we hunted, at the Di-lane, had not been burned in 5 or more years. We did see some small areas that had been burnt, sometime this fall, but for the most part the under growth was extremely thick! Di-lane is a beautiful piece of property when driving by it but when you get out to hunt areas you soon find out that the ground level cover is too thick for a quail to even walk through! On the positive side quail food is in great abundance with beggar lice, lespedeza etc. But I am concerned that fire may not be being used like it once was! We did find one covey of quail & the place where the dogs found them was very suitable because the ground cover wasn't as thick as what we observed in most of the other places we hunted. I am not posting this as a complaint but am wondering if land management practices may have changed? Any thoughts or comments will be appreciated.

None of the WMA's are doing a good job burning!!!!!!! Quail need cover for protection but they need to have some "dirt" to move around. Tall Timbers is telling everyone that burning makes quail but none of the public areas are listening. I even told a WMA ranger that I would bring down 4 or 5 guys and help them burn if there isn't enough money available to pay people to help with the burn.
Most WMA's only care about deer hunters/hunting. They do nothing to help the quail prosper............

 

[Deplorable Birdhunter]

None of the WMA's are doing a good job burning!!!!!!! Quail need cover for protection but they need to have some "dirt" to move around. Tall Timbers is telling everyone that burning makes quail but none of the public areas are listening. I even told a WMA ranger that I would bring down 4 or 5 guys and help them burn if there isn't enough money available to pay people to help with the burn.
Most WMA's only care about deer hunters/hunting. They do nothing to help the quail prosper............

I also believe that the modern management people don't like fire because they believe it contributes to "climate change"! Wildlife is in real trouble because of this thinking!!

 

[cj580guitar]

None of the WMA's are doing a good job burning!!!!!!! Quail need cover for protection but they need to have some "dirt" to move around. Tall Timbers is telling everyone that burning makes quail but none of the public areas are listening. I even told a WMA ranger that I would bring down 4 or 5 guys and help them burn if there isn't enough money available to pay people to help with the burn.
Most WMA's only care about deer hunters/hunting. They do nothing to help the quail prosper............

Deer hunters = Money spent. Small game hunters will always be on the back burner with state

 

[coachdoug87]

I believe most small game hunters would be willing to pay more in license fees etc if it meant more land would be managed for small game.

 

[antharper]

None of the WMA's are doing a good job burning!!!!!!! Quail need cover for protection but they need to have some "dirt" to move around. Tall Timbers is telling everyone that burning makes quail but none of the public areas are listening. I even told a WMA ranger that I would bring down 4 or 5 guys and help them burn if there isn't enough money available to pay people to help with the burn.
Most WMA's only care about deer hunters/hunting. They do nothing to help the quail prosper............

Burning on my local wma pretty often