People can afford to use prescribed burning, and that will do more for quail in your woods than anything else you can do. As a landowner and chairman of North Carolina Quail Unlimited, Ashburn is in tune with practices such as prescribed burning and herbicide treatments that help both timber growth and wildlife. Herbicides and controlled burns eliminate thick, woody vegetation and promote the growth of native plants. Thinning the understory reduces competition for water and nutrients needed for pine growth. After a prescribed burn, quail thrive on the combination of bare ground and overhead protection from avian predators.
Fire creates new insect foraging areas for chicks and controls nonnative plant species.
Ashburn also works with farmers who rent his cropland to improve quail habitat. Instead of mowing, he asks them to use herbicides to control woody vegetation near ditches and field borders. North Carolina State University has helped develop a weed sweep herbicide applicator, which is cheaper than mowing and leaves plants for bird cover. As Quail Unlimited chairman, Ashburn travels around the state to tell others what they can do to help the bobwhite recovery. Controlled fires in pine woods are one of the best tools we have to help quail.