Vol. 16, No. 9 
Page 2 
Ecology and Management of Sguirrels 
C. M. Nixon, 
S. P. Havera 
Illinois has been arbitrarily divided into 14 subregions as an aid in 
determining the present distribution and abundance of the gray sguirrel. Counties 
were grouped together on the basis of drainage patterns, using sguirrel abundance 
and the degree of forest cover remaining in a county as criteria. 
Forest cover was found to be decreasing in eight subregions, static in one 
subregion, and increasing in five subregions, all in southern Illinois. 
The greatest increase in forest cover--l4.9 percent between 1948 and 1962— 
occurred in the eight-county basin of the Embarras River. The greatest decrease in 
forest cover--!7*9 percent, 1948-62--occurred in the six-county basin of the middle 
Mississippi River. Forest cover in the Kaskaskia River basin was essentially 
unchanged durihg this 12-year period, but, with the creation of Lake Shelbyville, 
forest cover in the upper basin has declined since l962. 
Responses of Bobwhites to Habitat Manipulation J. A. Ellis 
The above-normal rainfall from February through May affected research plans, 
crop rotation schedules, and possibly the quail populations on the Dale and Forbes 
areas in 1973• Forty acres were scheduled for prescribed burning in either February 
or March in the experimental management zone on the Dale Area. On three different 
occasions, attempts were made without success to burn the tract. We were successful 
in burning four or five tracts on the Forbes Area. These fires were "cool" and did 
not accomplish the desired results. 
The delayed planting season eliminated oats scheduled for six plots in the 
experimental management zone on Forbes. These plots were in corn in 1972 and had 
been limed and fertilized with rock phosphate. The fertility of the plots, plus the 
abundant rainfall during the early part of the growing season, resulted in rank 
stands of mostly annual weeds such as common ragweed ( Ambrosia artemisi ifo1ia ), 
cocklebur ( Xanthium commune) , red clover ( Trifolium pratense) , goldenrod ( Solidago 
spp.), sweet clover ( Melilotus spp.), foxtail ( Setaria spp.), and mare's tail 
( Erigeron canadensis) . In some instances common ragweed was more than 6 feet tall. 
Such vegetative conditions are not conducive to quail abundance. 
Corn was scheduled for six plots on Forbes. Because of the delayed planting 
season, the sharecropper seeded soybeans instead of corn on four of the six plots. 
V/e prefer corn as a row crop because corn is not as hard on these soils as beans, 
and corn stubble provides more overwinter cover than bean stubble. 
My observations on Forbes, plus those of park employees and other Department 
of Conservation personnel, indicate that there are fewer quail broods this year 
than in 1972- However, audio-censuses on Forbes predicted higher populations for 
the fall of 1973 than in 1972. 
