Fifty years ago, rural Marylanders would hear the distinctive whistle of the Northern Bobwhite Quail in the grasses, scrubland and from the farm fields, but changing landscapes and human practices have led to a loss of birds like quail that thrive in those natural environments.
Maryland used to be considered one of the hotspots for quail hunting; southern Maryland in particular, but they’ve now disappeared from most parts of the state, says Luke Macaulay, Extension wildlife specialist.
Maryland landowners hold the power to reverse this trend, which is why Macaulay is working to educate them on practices that will help restore native landscapes and re-establish declining populations of quail and other wildlife. Macaulay has been working with Extension Education Master’s Program student Levin Sarver to use technology like audio recorders and trail cameras to monitor for bobwhite quail calls and wildlife activity at the 900-acre Point Pleasant Farm in Talbot County.
A perfect storm of factors have contributed to the loss of bobwhite quail habitat. “I think the big factor was our shift to herbicide-tolerant crops. It allowed for improved productivity and yield because weeds no longer grew in the farm fields,” Macaulay said. “But cleaner farming came with drawbacks for certain wildlife. Farmers back in the day had a weedier environment and that environment supported insects, pollinators, and seed production. So there were food resources out there, there was cover, and just a lot more diverse vegetation in that landscape.”
In his recently published paper, “Habitat Management for Northern Bobwhite Quail in Maryland,” Macaulay calls quail an “umbrella species,” meaning that improving their habitat will have beneficial aspects for other species in that same ecological community.
Commercial farming changes are not the only factor Macaulay accounts for the decline of the majority of birds in grassland and shrubland habitats in Maryland.
“We changed the landscape to be much more stable, but that really harms animals that rely on disturbances,” he said. “Our natural environment historically had lots of disturbances. There would be forest fires that raged for weeks, but now we extinguish them. People think of clear-cutting forests as bad, but if properly managed, clear cuts can mimic the type of disturbances that would create open fields and young forest habitat areas.”
“When people buy land, you might think they want it for economic return, but in reality, oftentimes that’s a secondary, or even tertiary goal,” Macaulay said. “Across different states and ecosystems, one of the top drivers of owning land is beauty and being near nature. Being able to observe and interact with wildlife is one of the top motivations for people who want to own land.”
While Macaulay’s research focuses on quail habitats, his outreach and educational workshops at the farms demonstrate systems like living shorelines, which provide breakwaters on the shores of the Chesapeake Bay increasing habitat areas, and controlled flooding systems which provide temporary respites and food sources for migrating waterfowl, all of which manipulate land to provide a more beneficial landscape for wildlife. And landowners are motivated to implement integrated solutions to meet their sustainable land management goals.
Although it seems that the onus of these rehabilitative changes lies on the shoulders of large area landowners, improving the sustainability of our land for wildlife will require everyone to contribute, says Sarver, who is interested in pursuing the use of technology like A.I. to improve farming practices through tailored educational resources in the future.
“Right now we’re losing farmland and native environments, so we need to have sustainable practices and improve the land that we already have,” Sarver said. “And it’s not going to take just the farmers, it’s going to take everybody. Everyone is going to have to contribute in some way.
by Laura Wormuth
