<p>1. 16 states to 25+<br />2. 2002 Farm Bill, national priority<br />3. Endorsed by national & regional associations<br />4. First NBCI Coordinator<br />5. NFWF Keystone Initiative, NBCI staff team hired<br />6. NRCS bobwhite restoration project<br />7. New farm bill practices<br />8. UT becomes NBCI home<br />9. Success! MO and CP33<br />10. NBCI 2.0</p> <p>#1<br />The NBCI and its parent technical group have grown from the original 16 southeastern states in 2002, to include 25 state wildlife management agencies plus myriad federal and private conservation partners, all coalesced around a national landscape-scale strategy for the restoration of wild bobwhite quail, representing the largest such collective effort on behalf of a resident game bird in the history of wildlife management.</p> <p>#2<br />The original NBCI gains Congressional attention and support in the 2002 Farm Bill, helping catapult bobwhite restoration as a consensus priority of the national wildlife conservation dialogue.</p> <p>#3 <br />NBCI is endorsed by the Association of Fish & Wildlife Agencies, the Southeastern Association of Fish & Wildlife Agencies, the Northeastern Association of Fish & Wildlife Agencies and the Midwest Association of Fish & Wildlife Agencies.</p> <p>#4<br />The first full-time NBCI coordinator is hired in 2003 – with combined funding from a Multistate Conservation Grant, NRCS and SEAFWA states – to raise the NBCI’s implementation phase another notch higher. The states – with some extra support from Quail Unlimited at a crucial time – demonstrate their commitment to the NBCI by continuing to fund this core position.</p> <p>#5<br />The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation awards “Keystone Initiative” status to the NBCI-based “Southeast Grassland Birds Initiative,” spawning annual grants that enabled hiring the first team of NBCI staff experts, to provide national leadership, coordination and capacity for NBCI states and partners in the areas of federal agricultural policy, bobwhite science, forest management and communications.</p> <p>#6<br />USDA invests $1.2 million for the Natural Resources Conservation Service Bobwhite Restoration Project in 2004, to develop technologies to assist field staff in delivering conservation practices that contribute to restoration of northern bobwhite habitat and populations throughout the range.</p> <p>#7<br />NBCI catalyzes development of major new USDA practices to support bobwhite and grassland bird habitats, including “bobwhite buffers” (CP 33), the “longleaf pine initiative” (e.g., CP 36, NRCS longleaf initiative and others) and State Acres for Wildlife Enhancement or SAFE (CP38), resulting in hundreds of thousands of acres of premium new bobwhite habitat in agricultural landscapes.</p> <p>#8<br />The states provide long-term stability and capability to the NBCI, by selecting the University of Tennessee to become the official national headquarters of NBCI, in close association with the UT Center for Native Grassland Management.</p> <p>#9<br />Success! The first NBCI success stories are documented: (a) by the Missouri Department of Conservation in Scott County, Missouri, and (b) by Mississippi State University on crop fields with CP33 field borders in several states. <br /> <br />#10<br />Unveiled in 2011, the completely revamped NBCI (the now-online NBCI 2.0) offered a comprehensive, landscape-scale strategy and a suite of conservation planning tools to enable states to target and maximize limited resources for the greatest benefit to bobwhites on the landscape. Due to the NGO-State-Federal collaborative and science-based development of NBCI 2.0, the bobwhite decline gains national attention and restoration strategies begin to be integrated into a diversity of state, regional and national wildlife conservation plans and initiatives.</p> <p> </p>
