The Northern Bobwhite Conservation Initiative (NBCI) was founded by the Southeastern Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies (SEAFWA) and its technical arm, the Southeast Quail Study Group Technical Committee, to restore declining quail populations to 1980 levels. After six successful years as an upstart regional movement, the NBCI is laying a permanent foundation for growth and going rangewide, according to the Wildlife Management Institute.

?The original NBCI was produced mostly by and for southeastern states. Implementation was shepherded and supported predominately at that regional level, even though the challenge far exceeded the boundaries of the SEAFWA. Several other states in bobwhite range subsequently became involved or requested involvement, prompting a decision to expand the plan to cover virtually all of the bobwhite's historic range.

With geographic expansion of the plan came the need to raise implementation practices to a higher level of stability and effectiveness to accommodate the full engagement of non-SEAFWA states and all potential partners rangewide. For six years, the NBCI has been staffed by a single coordinator, supported primarily by SEAFWA, serving numerous states and the myriad bobwhite conservation issues. Despite early successes?or because of them?the NBCI needed additional administrative coordination. In collaboration with the Midwest Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies and the Northeast Association, plus other key organization partners, SEAFWA initiated an open, public search in summer 2007 for a permanent operational home for the NBCI. It culminated in September 2008 with the signing of a Memorandum of Agreement that designated the University of Tennessee-Knoxville (UTK) as the rangewide home base for the NBCI. UTK will assume full operational responsibility by spring 2009.

A six-month NBCI transition strategy proposed by UTK has been accepted by SEAFWA and already is underway. The first major step was the replacement of the previous SEAFWA Directors' NBCI Committee, which had been providing regional support and guidance, with a national NBCI Transition Board composed of state representatives of the three regional associations. This temporary state-based group will evolve within a year into a standing NBCI Management Board more fully representative of the broad bobwhite conservation community. A business plan being developed to chart next steps likely will include creation of a rangewide NBCI technical committee.

These administrative developments for bobwhite restoration are ground-breaking. Never before had so many state wildlife agencies attempted such a concerted and complex effort to recover a resident game bird throughout the species' historic range. The stability provided by a permanent home, and the broad engagement of an improved administrative process to facilitate the rangewide initiative, opens significant opportunities for needed growth, development?and acceleration?of NBCI implementation. For more information, contact WMI's Don McKenzie, NBCI Coordinator, at 501-941-7994. (dfm)