Multiple coveys of wild bobwhite quail were recently seen at the University of Tennessee's Ames AgResearch and Education Center in Grand Junction.
The sighting came in the second year of a conservation partnership between UT AgResearch and Tall Timbers, which is working to restore habitat across more than 5,000 acres of bird-dog competition grounds.
Since work began in 2025, teams have managed about 1,500 acres with tree thinning, mulching and prescribed fire, opening dense forest into savanna with the vegetation bobwhites need for nesting and raising young.
The university describes the sighting as an early success, not a completed recovery. Habitat work and long-term management will continue, including moving wild birds into areas where their numbers are too low to respond to restoration.
