—continued
clump-grasses and forbs. A significant component of forbs (weeds) and/or legumes is critical in the quality of such stands for brood habitat. Where nesting habitat is adequate, other habitat components may be identified as requiring management efforts, e.g.winter cover,winter food, etc.

Bobwhite Population Demographics
In order to estimate historic, current and planned quail populations, some population assumptions had to be made and employed by each author. The following assumptions were derived from published literature, unpublished data sets, and the personal knowledge of experienced biologists: the mean clutch size is 12 eggs; mean covey size in autumn is 12 bobwhites; nest success rate for all nests over the life of a nest including egg-laying and incubation is 25 percent; nest density in good nesting habitat is one nest per acre over a nesting season; successful nests should occur at a rate of one nest per four acres of good nesting habitat (some authors elected to use a different assumption here—these are noted in the final text); legal bobwhite harvest removes 33.3 percent of the autumn pre-hunt population; all other mortality factors remove an additional 33.4 percent of the autumn population; the breeding population will be 33.3 percent of the preceding autumn pre-harvest population.

Databases Used
Population Density and Trends: Two sets of data were used to establish past and present population densities and trends by state and BCR. Harvest records maintained by 22 individual state conservation agencies were employed to assess the change in bobwhite harvests from 1980 to 1999. These data were also used to estimate the densities of bobwhites in the autumn population prior to the hunting season and the breeding densities at the initiation of the breeding season. An independent data set, the Breeding Bird Survey conducted annually by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service from 1982 - 1999, was used to observe and forecast trends in the status of bobwhites by state, BCR and over its U.S. range. The Breeding Bird Survey data will be used to monitor the success of the NBCI. Land Use Acreages and Trends: The Natural Resources Conservation Service provided detailed land use data at five-year intervals. Those data were used to evaluate the current and past status of bobwhite habitat and to serve as a basis for developing habitat management objectives. Data from the 1982 and 1997 National Resources Inventory were the source of information for the report.

Utilizing the harvest, Breeding Bird Survey and Natural Resources Inventory data, each chapter author calculated the number of "improvable acres" within each BCR and target population goals for each of several land use types (i.e.: cropland, rangeland, pasture/hay, CRP grass, CRP pine, Southern pine, etc.) within the BCR and each state's portion of that BCR. Population goals were expressed as the number of quail coveys needed to achieve the target goal of restoring the population to 1980 levels.

Population and Habitat Objectives
The final result across the 15 BCRs presents the big picture scope of this ambitious plan. To reach the 1980 goal, more than 2.7 million coveys need to be added to the total population that existed in 1999. Habitat restoration and management practices will eventually need to be applied to 81.1 million acres of farm, forest and rangeland.

We estimate that 78 percent of the goal coveys could be produced on 18.7 million acres of farmland (including hay land, pasture and CRP); 7 percent of goal coveys could come from management of 53.5 million acres of forestland; and 15 percent of goal coveys could be produced on 8.9 million acres of rangeland.

As daunting as some of these numbers might appear, there are some encouraging findings of this plan:
1.The primary land use would have to be altered on only 6.2 percent of the 81.1 million acres that need to be managed for habitat.
2.We estimate a full 21 percent of the goal coveys could be produced simply by converting existing CRP exotic grasses—which provide poor habitat for quail—to diverse stands of native,warm-season grasses and forbs.
3.Many bobwhite management practices—such as putting land in CRP, or converting a portion of a ranch's cool-season grass forage to native warm-season grasses—can actually enhance landowner income.
4.While some forest management practices for bobwhites may not be compatible with maximizing income from forest products, these practices are compatible with generating substantial revenues from forest products, while also producing wildlife benefits.

Partners Will Make This Plan A Reality
The NBCI will succeed only with the collaborative contributions of many key players.

Private landowners are the single most important group because the fate of the bobwhite hinges on their land-use practices. There is not, and will not be, enough public land on which to unilaterally meet the habitat objectives.

State wildlife agencies have the constitutional legal authority and responsibility to manage bobwhites. They also employ the major biological work force capable of providing needed technical assistance. Continued state leadership is crucial.

Quail Unlimited is the major private organization dedicated to quail. It will be vital to providing human, logistical, political, financial, technical and other resources.

Partners in Flight, the popular international songbird initiative, may be considered an unlikely player by some, but is certain to be a strong partner with quail advocates. Both groups are striving to provide more and better early-successional grassland and shrubland habitats, and both will be stronger in cooperation than in isolation.

Farm Service Agency administers the single biggest habitat conservation program in history, the CRP, as well as the Pasture Recovery Program. Both programs can provide good bobwhite habitat if implemented with consideration for habitat needs. Otherwise, these expensive programs will be of little or no value to bobwhites.

Natural Resources Conservation Service's Buffer Initiative, Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program and Conservation on Private Grazing Lands program can provide good bobwhite habitat, if administered with consideration for habitat needs. If NRCS ignores bobwhite habitat needs when implementing its programs, however, these costly conservation programs will be irrelevant to quail, and vast opportunities will be lost.

The U.S. Forest Service has important roles on both public and private lands. Its State and Private Forestry division administers the Forest