“Upland Country” at Dallas Safari Club Convention

January 5-8, 2012
Dallas Convention Center

At the January Dallas Safari Club Out of the Wild Convention, you may notice birds of a different feather.  Quail Coalition has partnered with Dallas Safari Club in presenting “Upland Country”, a game bird themed section of the Out of the Wild convention.  Quail Coalition is the largest contributor to quail conservation in the nation and has tremendous momentum with over 4,000 active members in 12 chapters throughout the state of Texas.  With this new partnership, quail hunters across the country will now have a gathering to share their passion and discuss important issues such as the plight of the northern bobwhite.  Upland hunters are well aware of the gradual disappearance of the bobwhite whistle across the landscape.  There is a renewed commitment among quail enthusiasts to “bring back bobwhites”. Intense efforts by the top researchers in the country are underway to identify and correct the maladies causing the population declines of the bobwhite quail.  A $2 million study named “Project Idiopathic Decline” has just begun, and is a joint, multi-state effort funded by the Rolling Plains Quail Research Foundation to study various causes of quail mortality, and develop strategies to reverse their population decline.

The emergence of Quail Coalition can be traced back to Dallas, TX, when the leadership of Park Cities Quail Unlimited decided to form its own independent 501 (c) 3 non-profit organization.  The drive behind this effort was the desire to retain ownership of funding raised at local events, of which Park Cities Quail achieved the designation as the largest grossing chapter in the nation.  The ability to direct their funds raised to the quail conservation beneficiary of their choice was appealing to the other local quail groups in Texas, and the consolidation was initiated to form what is now known as Quail Coalition.

The mission statement of Quail Coalition is “to sustain and restore huntable wild quail populations, to encourage and educate interested youth, and to celebrate our quail hunting heritage in this region”.  Quail Coalition works toward this mission by minimizing overhead, and targeting approximately $1 million annually towards quail research and conservation.  The Rolling Plains Quail Research Ranch, Cesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute, The Quail-Tech Alliance, and The Wildlife Habitat Federation count themselves among the beneficiary groups working to solve the puzzling decline of the bobwhite quail in our region.

Please make plans to join us this coming January in “Upland Country” at the DSC Out of the Wild Convention.  We will celebrate the recent fund raising success of Quail Coalition, and look forward to the future of quail hunting in our region.  In “Upland Country”, we will have several quail specific seminar presentations.  Famed sportsman and legendary businessman, T. Boone Pickens, will be talking about wildlife restoration at his West Texas ranch, Mesa Vista, and has graciously agreed to sign copies of the  new book on Mesa Vista co-authored by Ray Sasser.  Proceeds form the book sales will go to Quail Coalition.  For more information, please feel free to contact Jay Stine, Director of Shared Services for Quail Coalition, at jay.stine@quailcoalition.org.  We look forward to seeing you there!