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Best things to plant for whild quaik12/17/2022 ![]() ![]() ![]() Surely he overstates the case! But in the plant and animal world God made them neither good nor bad but simply to be themselves, to express their nature. ![]() In Calvinistic or Presbyterian theology we say the natural condition of humans is sinfulness or depravity. To save them we need to develop a new aesthetic. Our unnatural preference for tidy, green, and lush has ruined the habitat for the quail. They need the native grasses like broom sedge. A messy wild untidy look is what the quail need. They need hedgerows and thickets, and these are now constantly being mowed down or killed with chemicals. The quail need a grass they can easily run through, but most farmers plant grasses that grow too thick and dense for the quail. There are many theories about why the quail are in serious decline, but the main culprit seems to be tidiness caused by the overuse of weed eaters and the planting of non-native grasses in pastures and fields. People my age and older grew up seeing coveys of the beautiful birds regularly and hearing their lovely calls. My favorite bird (though I rarely see it or hear it) is the bobwhite quail. This creates a whole chain of unnatural and harmful results that impact insects, birds, mammals, and really the whole ecosystem. It is natural for yards to have fallen leaves (excellent natural fertilizer) but we rake them to the street because they kill our beautiful green unnatural grass. The book is about things like invasive plants, abundant use of non-native species, and how so very unnatural the typical American yard is with lots of green grass that would never grow there naturally. Outside of human conduct, when we mess with the natural world trouble surely follows. Is it natural to be good or to be bad? To be selfish or generous? The book is called Nature’s Best Hope: A New Approach to Conservation That Starts in Your Yard by Douglas W. The study also found that ragweed was the most benifical plant a manager could use, next important was bunch grasses for nesting cover.A current bestseller has got me to thinking about the issue of what is natural and what is not. In the study on areas with 20% to 30%weed fields with ragweed dominating along with other needs, the properties were supporting upwards to 3 quail per acre and an average of 1 covey for every 20 acres. That is brood habitat and supplies winter food and spring food. Acording to the albany study, you could actually plant more weeds, ideally 20% of the property for optimal benifits. Oh yeah, open your pines up to about a 30 ft basal area (for optimal habitat). That supplies all a quail's needs and you should be able to support a covey as long as there is some surrounding habitat. Burn half of the rest to encourage warm season bunch grasses and plant a couple of small thickets of plums, burn the other half the next year. Clear a little bit (around an acre, maybe a little bit more), plant ragweed, begger lice and partridge peas, disc that weed field every Feb until the weeds dont come back as strong, then replant. ![]()
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