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RALEIGH, N.C. (Sept. 20. 2004) – The North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission continues to make social, financial and biological strides in improving habitat for quail and songbirds.
According to the Cooperative Upland-habitat Restoration and Enhancement (CURE) program’s annual report recently presented to the Commission, the program has fulfilled its initial objectives and strives to make further progress before the pilot phase ends in 2006. Now in the fourth year of the program, Commission staff has completed all habitat creation and enhancement designated for the three private cooperatives enrolled in the program and continues to focus on the maintenance of these practices and their impact on wildlife. Initiated in 2000, CURE is a new strategy to increase habitat and improve small game and songbird populations on private land. The CURE program aims to create enough habitat in selected areas to have a measurable impact on local wildlife populations. Through the CURE program, the Commission offers guidance, labor and financial assistance to qualified landowners who sign five-year contracts with the Commission. Each cooperative is located in one of three focal areas in the state which represent the best mix of habitat conditions for early-successional development. “Although trends are still relatively early to determine, we observed an increase in the number of quail coveys during our last fall counts on the CURE cooperatives,” said Ryan Myers, Commission biologist in charge of surveys for the program. “We’ve put the right habitat in place, so we believe the birds are responding, but it will be several years before we can determine significant trend changes resulting from our CURE improvements.” In addition to these fall covey counts, Commission staff surveys for male bobwhites calling on the cooperatives in the spring. Myers compares these spring call counts to nearby reference routes that represent what is happening to habitat on a local landscape level. The early data show that most of the managed CURE areas seem to have a greater number of singing males than the reference routes. Although there are some positive numbers among the 40 songbird species the Commission monitors on the cooperatives, it’s still too early to guarantee which birds are going to respond to the new habitat. “Songbird population surveys are highly variable, from species to species and year to year,” said Myers. “We are very cautious when drawing any conclusions too soon about the impact of our management on local flocks.” Commission staff has been busy gathering partners and support for this mission to stem the decline of bobwhite quail and other early-successional habitat-dependent birds. Through multiple grant programs, both the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Department of Agriculture have become big supporters of North Carolina’s CURE program. “I think the success of our grant applications reflects the confidence that the federal government has in our methods,” said Don Hayes, the Commission’s private lands coordinator. “There is a real crisis for some of these bird populations in our state, and the Commission lacks the resources to turn the tide by ourselves. We’ve tried to develop a structure for recovery and point the way to the future. Federal money is a key component to expanding early-successional habitat on private lands.” Several local chapters of the sportsman’s group Quail Unlimited also have been active in supporting the CURE program. In addition to financial support, the Quail Unlimited chapters have generated a grass roots enthusiasm for the program. The annual report also notes the Commission staff is well into phase two of the CURE program, which designated CURE-style management on parts of suitable game lands. Crews at four game lands — Suggs Mill Pond, Caswell, South Mountains and Sandhills — completed restoration and enhancement activities on 3,951 acres of land this past year. Unlike the private areas, which are able to incorporate the facets of working farms, the primary focus on game lands is forest management. These CURE-managed portions of the game lands will be monitored with the same protocols as the private CURE areas, but with only one year of survey data post-forest management, it’s too early for a definitive biological response. “The Commission remains enthusiastic about the program, its goals and direction,” said David Cobb, division chief of wildlife management for the Commission. “With only two years of this pilot phase left in the program, we are looking toward the future, considering all our options and possibilities.” |
