"BLOOMING GROVE -- On one side of a gravel road in Navarro County, an overgrazed pasture has been cropped to the dirt. Across the road, a surviving patch of Blackland Prairie that has been reseeded with native grasses is covered with a cornucopia of 170 plant species that together comprise prime habitat for bobwhite quail -- if only they could get there."
"'That worn-down pasture's what you call a quail-proof fence. It turns this good habitat into a deserted island,' said Texas Parks and Wildlife Department biologist Jay Whiteside, who works with 33 landowners on the Western Navarro Bobwhite Restoration Initiative on 25,000 acres around Blooming Grove, between Hillsboro and Corsicana.
'That over there is no better than concrete for quail,' Jimmie Stewart, vice president of the landowners group, said as he stripped seeds from a stalk of eastern gamma grass into palm. 'This is quail ice cream. This is what they need.'"
Steve Campbell reports for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram September 18, 2012.
