Essentially a range-wide prescription for bobwhite recovery, NBCI 2.0 includes a thorough update and analysis of the bobwhite’s situation range-wide, identifies 195 million acres of priority landscapes where bobwhite and grasslands conservation have a relatively high potential of success, and identifies specific management actions necessary for those acres to achieve respective state bobwhite population goals. The plan also identifies specific policy-level constraints to success, such as use of prescribed fire, changes in agricultural field management practices, the conversion of invasive exotic grasses such as fescue to native, warm-season grasses, and altering certain forest management practices detrimental to bobwhites and other species.
NBCI 2.0 includes a massive database with an array of custom digital applications – the NBCI Conservation Planning Tool (CPT) – that helps bobwhite biologists quickly analyze habitat prospects at bird conservation region (BCR), state, county or sub-county levels, and plan and implement projects for the greatest return on investment.
