Western Navarro Bobwhite Recovery Initiative

Even though large portions of Navarro County have been converted from tallgrass prairie to improved pasture or row crop farming, remnant quail populations were discovered in Western Navarro County in the 2000's that led to the development of the Western Navarro Bobwhite Recovery Initiative (WNBRI) in 2006.  WNBRI is a landscape level approach to rebound struggling and isolated populations of quail in the western third of Navarro County.  Currently, there are 34 landowners enrolled in WNBRI creating a cumulative land base of 30,000 acres.  The primary goal of WNBRI is to restore and maintain up to 30,000 acres of contiguous habitat of native bunchgrasses and forbs that will provide abundant forage and essential nesting, brood rearing, thermal and protective cover.  

In 2008, Trinity Waters (formerly TBCF) was awarded a $40,000.00 Wildlife Diversity Grant from the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department to purchase essential equipment for WNBRI to use for native grassland restoration and range enhancement projects. This money has been used to purchase a Truax No-till Seed Drill for planting native grasses, herbicides to prepare sites for planting native grasses, prescribed burning equipment, and trailer for storage and transport of the burning equipment.  In addition, a donation of $60,000 from Audubon Texas was used to purchase bulk native grass and forb seed mixes, and in 2011, WNBRI partnered with the National Wild Turkey Federation and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to construct fire break and contract prescribed burns.

As of 2011, 1500 acres have been planted or restored to native grassland. More information can be found at navarroquail.org.