THE QUAIL REFUGE PROGRAM 



In 1982 the Division of Fisli and Game launched a quail restora- 

 tion program in southern California based on the premise that through 

 managed natural production the California valley quail could be 

 returned to many of the areas in the southern part of the state where it 

 was once considerably more abundant than it is at the present time. 



The first step in the development of this quail management project 

 was the establishment of thirty-six quail refuge areas in the counties 

 of Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Riverside and San Diego. These 

 refuges were then divided into three groups and each group was placed 

 under the dominion of a trained refuge caretaker whose duties included 

 those of warden, trapper and game management expert. Thus the 

 ground work was laid for production of valley quail in those field 

 laboratories — the quail refuges. 



In outlining a management plan, the first thing that was consid- 

 ered was, of course, the protection of game from the human element — 

 the man with the gun. This was taken care of by the more than ade- 

 quate posting of the refuge areas against trespass and, as aforesaid, by 

 the employment of caretakers to prevent violations of the sanctuaries 

 under their supervision. These men have also been responsible for 

 carrying on predatory animal control work on the refuges and have 

 been waging continual warfare against the furred and feathered 

 enemies of game species since the quail replenishment program met its 

 inception four years ago. 



The protection of the quail from human and other predators has 

 not been the deciding factor in the success of the quail refuge venture, 

 jiltliouuli i1 has certjiinly ])lay('d its part. iJriefly, tlie answer to the 

 quai! prol)lem in southern California has been found to lie in the main- 

 tenance of a dependable game water supply during the summer months. 

 Throughout a large part of the desert and semidesert areas of the state 

 mf)st of the water that was once available to wild game has either dried 

 up due to a succession of years of low precipitation, or has been appro- 

 ])riated for other uses by man. Thousands of springs that once pro- 

 vided game with water throughout the year have ceased to flow, and 

 iliis lias spelled game dei)letion. It was the water problem that had to 

 be solved on the quail refuges in order to bring them to the point at 

 which we find them today, with by far the majority of them support- 

 ing quail populations approaching the maximum. 



The development of water on the quail refuges was approached 

 from two angles; first, the development of natural water and, second, 

 the supplementing of natural water by entirely artificial means. In 

 the first instance, springs and seepages that ordinarily dried up early 

 in the summer were cleaned out, walled up and provided with drip 



