A Bradford, Pennsylvania native, Dr. Linda Ordiway, will lead West Virginia’s efforts to restore wild bobwhite quail to the landscape. She expects her initial efforts to be concentrated on the 25,000-acre Tomblin Wildlife Management Area, which has been managed for elk habitat and where 48 bobwhites from Texas were recently released. She will also lead the state’s grouse restoration efforts.
“Our intent is to improve our habitat conditions on our wildlife management areas so that we can have a self-sustaining quail population,” said Dr. Ordiway. “We have documented reproduction this summer.” Dr. Ordiway expects to be active on the National Bobwhite Technical Committee and serve as West Virginia’s regular contact with the 25-state National Bobwhite Conservation Initiative (NBCI). Paul Johansen, chief of the Wildlife Resources Section of the West Virginia Department of Natural Resources, is chair of the NBCI Management Board, comprised of state agency directors and wildlife chiefs who guide initiative policy.
Dr. Ordiway spent 14 years as a wildlife biologist with the US Forest Service’s Northeast Forestry Sciences Lab in the Allegheny National Forest and the last nine years with the Ruffed Grouse Society as Mid-Atlantic Southern Appalachian Regional biologist. She attended Lock Haven University for a BS in Secondary Education Biology, Marshall University for her MS in Biology and State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry for her PhD in Forest and Natural Resource Management. She is an avid grouse and woodcock hunter with a brace of Weimaraners.
