SAN ANGELO The Texas Quail Index will mark its fourth year with a cooperators’ training April 25-26 at San Angelo.
The Texas Cooperative Extension program starts at 1:15 p.m. April 25 and ends at noon the next day.
Dr. Dale Rollins, Extension wildlife specialist and originator of the index, said the five-year project’s goals are two-fold. The first goal is to determine if certain population measures (e.g., spring “bob-white” whistle counts) predict quail abundance during the subsequent hunting season. And the second goal is to train landowners to assess the status of their quail and habitat to guide management decisions.
“The Texas Quail Index provides a very hands-on’ method for the property owner to assess the property’s quail potential,” said Rollins. “More importantly, it teaches the landowner how his management, or lack of it, is affecting his quail population either positively or negatively. The index is appropriate for landowners who have either bobwhite or scaled (blue’) quail. We’d especially like to see more cooperators from blue quail country.
“Something new for 2005 is what we’ve dubbed the TQI-Lite.’ It’s a scaled-down version of the original index. The original version takes a lot of time; about 60 hours annually, to collect the data, often at dawn. The lite version will be applicable to smaller properties of from 600 to 3,000 acres. It will require about half as much time as the full-blown index.”
April 25 activities will be in the classroom at the Texas A&M University System Agricultural Research and Extension Center here. The center is north of San Angelo on U.S. Hwy 87.
April 26 activities start at daybreak near Tennyson where participants will learn to conduct the various quail counts, habitat measurements, and other means of measuring quail populations.
“This is a very intense, but interesting hands-on’ training,” Rollins said. “We strongly believe in the adage: Tell me, and I forget; show me, and I remember; involve me, and I understand.'”
Individual registration is $15 if received by April 22, or $25 at the door. Registration includes demonstration materials and one meal.
For more information, contact Rollins at (325) 653-4576 or e-mail, d-rollins@tamu.edu .
More information on the Texas Quail Index is available at http://teamquail.tamu.edu .
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