"Bobwhite Buffers" Fly Past 200,000 Acre Mark Nationwide

Illinois, Kansas, Missouri and Iowa lead CP-33 enrollment

Credit: (Quail Forever)

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With 8,181 new acres already enrolled in the program this year, including 2,070 acres in May, federal Conservation Practice 33 (CP-33) has surpassed the 200,000-acre mark nationwide. The practice, which is most commonly referred to as "Bobwhite Buffers" because it is targeted at improving habitat for bobwhite quail, currently, has 207,298 acres enrolled in the program.

"Bobwhite Buffers," announced in 2004, establish the edge habitat along fields, streams and woods that bobwhites love. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has established a goal of 250,000 acres for the program. The CP-33 program is part of the larger federal Continuous Conservation Reserve Program (CCRP).

"The only way to bring back decimated bobwhite quail populations is to provide the necessary habitat for them to thrive, and CP-33 does exactly that better than any other tool available," said Dave Nomsen, Quail Forever's vice president of Government Affairs, " Quail Forever's 100-plus chapters and 7,000 members have been instrumental in promoting CP-33 enrollment and planting CP-33 buffers since the program's inception. Now the goal is to achieve full enrollment, as these success stories and continued demand will help us encourage USDA to allocate additional acres for this important quail program."

CP-33 Acres Enrolled by State

Illinois-44,611; Kansas-32,558; Missouri-29,542; Iowa-23,031; Ohio-14,318; Indiana-11,255; Kentucky-7,430; North Carolina-6,865; Nebraska-5,647; South Carolina-5,496; Arkansas-5,385; Tennessee-4,888; Texas-4,620; Georgia-2,195; Mississippi-2,164; Virginia-1,498; South Dakota-1,239; Alabama-1,067; Oklahoma-1,053

• Acreage totals through May 2009

For more information about CP-33 and other FSA programs, please visit your county FSA office or http://www.fsa.usda.gov.

Pheasants Forever (PF) launched Quail Forever in August of 2005 to address the continuing loss of habitat suitable for quail and the subsequent quail population decline. Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever are non-profit conservation organizations dedicated to the protection and enhancement of pheasant, quail, and other wildlife populations in North America through habitat improvement, land management, public awareness, and education. PF/QF has more than 130,000 members in 700 local chapters across the continent.

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